Trump Admin Tells Congress It Lacks Legal Justification To Strike Venezuela

Last Updated:November 06, 2025, 22:03 IST

The administration is seeking legal opinion from the Justice Department seeking justification for launching strikes against land targets without needing to ask Congress

The sources said that the "execute order" that allowed the US military action against suspected drug boats that began in September does not extend to land targets. (IMAGE: AFP)

Trump administration officials on Wednesday told lawmakers that the US is not planning to launch strikes in Venezuela and doesn’t have legal justification supporting any current attacks in the land targets.

CNN quoted sources familiar with the briefing conducted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an official from the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) as saying the lawmakers were told during the classified session that the opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to justify strikes against suspected drug boats does not permit strikes inside Venezuela itself or any other territories.

The sources further said that the “execute order" that allowed the US military action against suspected drug boats that began in September does not extend to land targets.

The existing OLC opinion includes a list of 24 different cartels and criminal organizations based around Latin America it says the administration is authorized to target, CNN quoted one of the sources familiar with the document.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking a separate legal opinion from the Justice Department seeking justification for launching strikes against land targets without needing to ask Congress to authorise military force.

The US military has so far carried out 16 known strikes on the alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, killing at least 67 people.

According to CNN, the administration officials have in several briefings acknowledged that they do not necessarily know the individual identities of each person on board a vessel before they attack it.

While lauding US intelligence assets, Democratic Senator Mark Warner questioned the use of lethal force against the boats instead of interdicting them like previously by the Coast Guard. He said interdicting these boats could have provided evidence of trafficking.

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