Pentagon, Inc.

On Tuesday, self-proclaimed War Secretary Pete Hegseth narrowly escaped impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors." This failed impeachment leaves Hegseth facing a showdown in the coming year. Congressional committees possess extensive investigative powers, including the ability to subpoena administration officials for testimony under oath and demand the surrender of documents.

Many Democrats, buoyed by their recent electoral losses, are eager to confront Hegseth. Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda, a Democrat from North Carolina, expressed his desire to see Hegseth not just impeached, but prosecuted, accusing him of murdering people in the Caribbean and killing 163 children in Iran. A wealth of evidence is set to come down on Hegseth, potentially leading to multiple convictions.

However, merely having a government official guilty of numerous crimes does not guarantee that he will face justice. To illustrate this point, Rebecca Gordon, a contributor to TomDispatch, revisits the 1980s when Oliver North, a military aide at the National Security Council, was involved in a scheme to fund Nicaraguan Contras with money from illicit missile sales to Iran.

Convicted of three felonies, North successfully fought to have his convictions overturned and went on to become a prominent figure at Fox News, a bastion of conservative extremism. This raises the question of whether Hegseth's Pentagon could evolve into an autonomous economic entity, akin to the militaries of Egypt or Iran.