Overview
- Thirteen minority members of the Senate Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeking transparency on the legal basis for the operations.
- They ask for the expeditious declassification and public release of the Sept. 5 OLC memo, citing prior public OLC opinions after U.S. strikes in Libya in 2011 and Syria in 2018.
- Reporting tallies at least 21 U.S. strikes on alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific with dozens of reported deaths, including a count of 83.
- The administration maintains the actions are lawful under presidential authority and characterizes the campaign as a non-international armed conflict with drug cartels.
- President Trump recently accused Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly of sedition after they appeared in a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.