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Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Friday called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to give them copies of the orders issued to strike boats in the Caribbean that the Trump administration says were trafficking drugs.
They released two letters addressed to Hegseth. The first was sent on Sept. 23, establishing the legal requirements mandating congressional oversight over military execute orders (EXORDS). These orders are meant to be sent to the defense committees within 15 days of being issued, according to the first letter.
“Unfortunately, the Department has not complied with this requirement,” the letter stated.
A second letter sent on Oct. 6 requests a written opinion from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel over the legal basis — domestic or international — for conducting these strikes and related operations.
The senators also requested a complete list “of all designated terrorist organizations and drug trafficking organizations with whom the President has determined the United States is in a non-international armed conflict and against whom lethal military force may be used.”
“To date, these documents have not been submitted,” according to a Friday statement from Reed’s office.
Tensions continue to escalate between the United States and Venezuela as the Trump administration conducts strikes against alleged narco-trafficking boats. The deployment of warships, surveillance planes and fighter aircraft, along with covert CIA operations in Venezuela seemingly authorized by President Trump, has resulted in speculation around potential military operations aimed at the South American country.
Trump and his close allies have raised the prospects of the U.S. conducting land strikes in Venezuela. The administration has reportedly accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of controlling the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization.
While The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration identified military facilities in Venezuela used to smuggle narcotics as potential targets for attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday called the reporting on the U.S. deciding to conduct an attack “a fake story.”
Earlier in the day, Trump said it’s “not true” that the U.S. was planning to strike Venezuela.
A YouGov poll on Friday showed that 42 percent of Americans oppose military intervention in Venezuela, while 27 percent support it. A majority of those polled oppose a land invasion, the boat strikes and the deployment of U.S. Navy vessels in the waters surrounding the country.
