(The Hill) – Senate Democrats are asking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi to declassify and publicly release the Justice Department (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) classified, written opinion outlining the legal basis for the Trump administration’s strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
Thirteen Senate Democrats, all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are demanding an “expeditious declassification and public release” of the classified opinion, which was drafted over the summer and argued that U.S. troops who participate in boat strikes, which have taken place on both sides of South America, cannot be prosecuted.
“Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force,” the Senate Democrats wrote in a Monday 2-page letter to Hegseth and Bondi. “We therefore believe that the declassification and public release of this important document would enhance transparency in the use of deadly force by our Nation’s military and is necessary to ensure Congress and the American people are fully informed of the legal justification supporting these strikes.”
The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon and DOJ for comment.
The letter comes as lawmakers have expressed scrutiny over the attacks, which began in early September, including whether they put service members in a position to carry out unlawful killings.
So far, the U.S. military has conducted 21 strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing at least 83 people whom the administration has billed as “narco-terrorists.”
The strikes have drawn blowback from Democrats and some Republicans, who have questioned the legal rationale of the actions. In response, the administration has provided at least 14 briefings on the strikes, although the sessions have not quelled concerns of some in Congress.
“Significant and noteworthy precedent exists for the public release of OLC opinions related to overseas military action,” Senate Democrats wrote in the letter. “After the United States carried out military strikes in Libya in 2011 and in Syria in 2018, the Department of Justice released the applicable OLC opinion justifying each operation.”
The White House said on Monday that President Trump is “satisfied” with the boat strikes. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “you can expect to see those strikes to continue.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), one of the letter’s signees, said on Monday that he and other Democrats on the committee reviewed the classified opinion last week and that he felt “disappointed & dissatisfied with the supposed legal justification for attacks.”
Aside from the boat strikes, the administration has amassed a massive military presence in the U.S. Southern Command area, dispatching warships, F-35 fighter jets, Marines, at least one submarine and the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest carrier, as tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela approach boiling point.
Trump has weighed ordering strikes inside Venezuela but has also not ruled out conducting talks with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, whom the administration has called an “illegitimate leader.”
The U.S. military has continued to have its presence felt near Caracas with at least one Air Force B-52 bomber, a minimum of three F/A-18 Hornet combat jets and at least two E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft flying off the coast of Venezuela Monday evening, according to open-source data reviewed by The Hill.
“We view the Maduro regime as being illegitimate and the president has been very satisfied with the successful strikes against narco-terrorists and foreign terrorists that are illegally trafficking drugs towards the United States of America,” Leavitt said on Monday.