Hegseth Won't Commit to Obeying Court on LA Protests

A federal judge will deal with California Gov. Gavin Newsom's request to block troops from taking part in immigration raids on Thursday—but it's not clear Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will respect the decision if he disagrees with it. During a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, Hegseth would not commit to obeying court rulings on the deployment of Marines and National Guard troops President Trump has ordered, Politico reports.

• Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna asked Hegseth, "Whatever the federal district court decides, will you abide by it?" Hegseth said it was a "pending situation," the Guardian reports. "What I will tell you is, my job right now is to ensure the troops that we have in Los Angeles are capable of supporting law enforcement," he said.

• When asked again, Hegseth said, "What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country." He repeated the answer when he was asked, "So you're not willing to say you would respect those decisions?"
• The 700 Marines sent to Los Angeles "are still conducting pre-mission training and they have not been employed by Task Force 51, the DoD command element in Los Angeles," a US Northern Command spokesperson said Wednesday, per the Hill. "I do not have an estimate of when they will be employed."
• Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the commander of the operation, said Wednesday that 500 National Guard troops have been trained to accompany federal agents on immigration operations and some have already been on missions, the AP reports.
• Earlier this week, Hegseth said he expects the administration's use of the National Guard to be stepped up. "I think we're entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland," he said.

(More Pete Hegseth stories.)