The Trump administration is reportedly not currently planning to launch military strikes inside Venezuela and told lawmakers it doesn’t yet have the legal justifications to do so, as the White House’s campaign against Latin American drug groups rages on.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the White House Office of Legal Counsel reportedly briefed lawmakers on the ongoing operation.
In the meeting, the Trump officials said that neither the “execute order” that launched the military campaign in September nor the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel opinion regarding the strikes permits attacks inside Venezuela or other territories, CNN reports.
Nonetheless, the White House is still reportedly seeking legal permissions to launch strikes in the future inside Venezuela should it choose to.
The administration is reportedly asking the DOJ for a separate legal opinion on land-based strikes that could be conducted without the need to ask Congress to authorize force, according to CNN.
Trump aides have asked the DOJ for legal guidance on expanding the military campaign, The New York Times reports.
Privately, the president has reportedly expressed some reservations about launching military action to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. officials accuse of being in league with drug traffickers.
The Justice Department is working on a legal justification that would allow Trump to target Maduro as part of a potential military operation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
“President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to take on the cartels and stop the scourge of narcoterrorism from killing Americans,” a White House official told The Independent. “The President continues to take actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and pursuant to his constitutional authority. All actions comply fully with the law of armed conflict.”
The White House has alternated between chest-beating threats of armed action against Venezuela and dismissals of the potential for conflict.
In October, the president said he authorized covert CIA operations inside the country and claimed that strikes on land are “going to be next,” only for Trump to say last week he’s not considering strikes inside Venezuela after all, and that he doubts the U.S. will go to war with the Latin American nation.
The administration has argued its attacks on alleged gun boats, which have killed at least 67 people, are legal and based on solid intelligence, though a growing chorus of critics are questioning both premises.
“The Trump administration remains unable to provide any credible explanation for its extrajudicial and unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement following the Wednesday briefing with Trump officials. “It was clear from this briefing that the administration’s legal justifications are dubious and meant to circumvent Congress’ constitutional power on matters of war and peace.”
The Senate on Thursday will consider a bipartisan war powers resolution to block the president from attacking Venezuela.
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