President Donald Trump is using a legally questionable justification for the invasion of Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro, constitutionallawexperts and lawmakershavecomplained.
The Guardian's Robert Tait noted that not only did Trump not get congressional authorization, Trump also didn't inform Congress it was happening, under the guise of it "leaking." The White House did tell the New York Times and Washington Post, however.
Typically, administrations tell the so-called "Gang of Eight," a group of top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate that includes the top leadership. One New York Times reporter explained that the group of lawmakers "does not leak."
"In one fell swoop, the capture appeared to render the 1973 War Powers Resolution obsolete, if not an outright work of fiction," wrote Tait.
The act was passed after the Vietnam war when lawmakers grew fearful of an "imperial presidency." It mandates that Trump notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops anywhere. It also requires he withdraw those troops within 60 days unless Congress agrees to legally declare war.
Trump had been signaling this might happen, by declaring fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction," calling Maduro's allies "narco-terrorists" and deploying the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest US aircraft carrier, to position itself off the coast of Venezuela.
Former President Barack Obama didn't seek authorization from Congress for the operation to capture and kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, however, Congress passed an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for any military actions on al-Qaeda.
Former President George W. Bush also had that AUMF for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ex-President George HW Bush tried to unseat Panama's Manuel Noriega in 1989 without a formal declaration of war, but he didn't get bipartisan support beforehand, The Guardian recalled.
Trump has never sought approval to strike Venezuela or the boats off the coast.
The explanation has been that Trump's military strikes weren't part of a military operation, rather it was a Department of Justice operation. The military only helped. Trump has posted a number of photos from the military action with his top Cabinet officials, and Stephen Miller, watching the attack unfold. Attorney General Pam Bondi was not in any of those photos.
Rubio, who was on hand at Mar-a-Lago for the attack, later explained, “It’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say: ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.'"
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the "Gang of Eight," said: “Our constitution places the gravest decisions about the use of military force in the hands of Congress for a reason. Using military force to enact regime change demands the closest scrutiny, precisely because the consequences do not end with the initial strike.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) voted last month to table a war powers resolution seeking to rein in Trump's actions in Venezuela.
In a comment on Saturday, the Guardian quoted him saying: “It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade.”
“Where will this go next? Will the president deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies?" he asked.