The U.S. does not have a legal justification to support strikes inside Venezuela, Trump administration officials told lawmakers Thursday during a classified briefing, reported CNN.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and an official from the White House Office of Legal Counsel conducted the briefing.
Lawmakers were told that a Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion issued last month used to justify strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels does not authorize strikes within Venezuela.
The Trump administration is seeking a separate legal opinion to authorize land strikes without congressional approval.
Since Sept. 2, the U.S. has conducted 16 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific.
A Miami Herald report published last week said that the U.S. was poised to strike military targets inside Venezuela to destroy installations allegedly used by the Soles drug cartel, though President Donald Trump told reporters that was not true.
In recent weeks, however, Trump has publicly said his administration will carry out strikes against drug-related targets inside Venezuela.
“The land is going to be next,” Trump told reporters in mid-October.
A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced a resolution that would direct the president “to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.”
The resolution has 15 co-sponsors, including Democrat Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. A vote is scheduled for 5 p.m.
“Congress should not cede its power to any president,” Kaine told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday, according to CBS News.
“If colleagues believe that a war against the narco-traffickers in the ocean or a war against Venezuela is a good idea, then put an [authorization of military force] on the table and debate and vote it, but don’t just hand the power over to an executive.
“That runs against everything that this nation was founded on.”
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