A secret memo from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel determined that President Donald Trump had the constitutional authority to send troops into Venezuela without approval from Congress, according to a new report.
The New York Times detailed that the document, which has been shown to some members of Congress, covers three areas: international law, when and whether the U.S. military can be used to assist in a law enforcement issue and whether Trump needed authorization from Congress to do so.
The outlet noted that experts noted that the operation could have violated international law, considering that under the UN Charter, which has been ratified by the U.S. Senate, a nation can't use force in another country without its consent, self-defense rationale or permission of the UN Security Council.
Elsewhere in the report, the document notes as precedent a memo from 1989 claiming that then-President George H.W. Bush had inherent constitutional power to override international law by sending the FBI to conduct arrests abroad. Bush then relied on that claim to arrest Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.
When addressing the need to go through Congress, the memo claimed that as commander in chief a president has the constitutional power to order a military operation if it's in the national interest and its nature, scope and duration won't amount to a war in the constitutional sense. To sustain the claim, it cites Trump saying that the U.S. is in a formal "noninternational armed conflict." It also notes Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro's charges in the U.S. and another memo that approved of strikes against alleged drug boats.
The U.S. carried the operation on January 3, capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. More than 80 commandos entered Maduro's compound and after a firefight with his security detail, they opened a door leading to his bedroom, where he was captured along with Flores as they tried to escape into a reinforced room. They have been kept in a prison in Brooklyn since.
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