Trump hiding his 'murky' arguments for invading Venezuela from Congress: analysis

MS NOW reports President Donlad Trump is keeping his legal arguments hidden even as his administration escalates a months-long campaign against Venezuela to a Saturday strike in Caracas and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump announced the raid and kidnapping operation in a 4:21 a.m. Truth Social post, but MS NOW reports Trump did not seek congressional authorization for neither this nor a series of deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean.

“The administration has cited a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo to justify strikes against 35 vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. But the memo — whose existence has been reported by the Washington Post, but not independently verified by MS NOW — and its arguments remain classified, leaving Congress and the public without clarity about the administration’s legal reasoning,” reports MS NOW.

While not addressing subsequent attacks, a White House official told MS NOW that all boat strikes have are in full compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict. “In each case, the vessel was assessed by the U.S. intelligence community to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization engaged at that time in trafficking illicit drugs, which could ultimately be used to kill Americans.”

But critics are calling foul on the secrecy.

“The legal basis for the strike inside Venezuela is very murky, including because covert action is used when the U.S. government intends to keep its hand hidden, not boast about it publicly,” said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia Law professor specializing in constitutional war powers.

Saturday’s operation upped concerns of transparency to new heights, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posting on X that there had been no congressional approval or authorization for use of military force prior to the Venezuelan aggression.

Lee said Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him Maduro had been arrested after the fact “to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States,” and that the military action “was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.” That, according to the administration, falls under the president’s “inherent authority” under Article II of the Constitution to protect American personnel.

Democratic critics like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) claim, however, that “the illegality of Trump’s insane war in Venezuela is out of control.”

“Remember, this has NOTHING to do with stopping drugs from entering America,” said Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Venezuela produces cocaine bound for Europe. This is war mongering distraction.”

Read the full MS NOW report at this link.