Trump administration draws up new legal justification for Maduro operation
The Justice Department’s opinion is expected to say that the operation was lawful because it was part of a law enforcement action.
The Trump administration told lawmakers that the Justice Department developed a new legal opinion to justify the operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a lawmaker and two other people familiar with the discussions said Wednesday, amid concerns about large-scale U.S. military actions in the country.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers this week that they would be able to view the document soon, Rep. Jim Himes (D., Conn.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Wall Street Journal. Himes said he believes the opinion will call the operation lawful “because it was assisting a law enforcement action."
In the days since the U.S. military incursion, senior Trump administration officials have sought to characterize the operation as a law enforcement action. But Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns that the raid on Maduro paves the way for additional U.S. military operations in Venezuela—especially if the security situation in the country deteriorates—and sets a precedent for using lethal force elsewhere.
“What’s next? Is Greenland next? Is Colombia, Mexico or Cuba next?" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Wednesday after senior Trump administration officials briefed senators on the Maduro operation.
The Senate will vote next week on a bipartisan war-powers resolution to prevent any further military action in Venezuela, needing only a majority of votes to pass.
Spokespeople for the White House and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The document adds to the Trump administration’s legal argument for its massive military buildup and recent operations in and around Venezuela. The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel this summer wrote a separate legal justification for the administration’s strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The July memo’s main argument is that President Trump’s designation of criminal drug networks as foreign terrorists makes them legitimate military targets. Venezuela has long been a transit route for cocaine from Colombia, but there is no evidence it produces or traffics fentanyl, according to experts.
On Wednesday, Trump said he spoke to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, and the two leaders plan to meet in Washington in the near future. Trump said he appreciated Petro’s tone, adding that they discussed “the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had."
The OLC is a powerful in-house advisory arm of the Justice Department that provides legal opinions for the entire executive branch. Past Democratic and Republican administrations have relied on its lawyers to give legal cover for bold assertions of presidential power, especially concerning the use of force in the name of national security.
During the George H.W. Bush administration, for example, an 1989 OLC memo written by then-Assistant Attorney General William Barr said the president could authorize extraterritorial arrests and formed the legal backbone of the operation to remove Panamanian President Manuel Noriega from power. The memo, which came to be known as the “abduction opinion," paved the way for seizing Noriega to face domestic drug trafficking charges.
And during the presidency of George W. Bush, the OLC was involved in drafting opinions that provided a green light to the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department to engage in so-called enhanced interrogation tactics on detainees during the War on Terror. Critics assailed the legal writings as “torture memos," and they were later rescinded.
Democrats in Congress have challenged the Trump administration’s rationale for last week’s military operation that nabbed Maduro and his wife and questioned its legality. “Clearly, this is wildly illegal," Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on CNN. “Donald Trump’s entire foreign policy is corrupt."
Trump has threatened further military action against Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela, if she doesn’t heed U.S. demands for greater access to the country’s oil reserves or begin a transition toward elections.
If Rodríguez fails to keep order in the country, U.S. officials and analysts fear Venezuela’s many armed groups, criminal networks and rival political factions could engage in a struggle for power. Even if there is stability, Trump’s desire to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure over many years and at the cost of billions of dollars could put oil-company employees at risk, analysts say.
“The oil is liquid gold," said Robert Pape, an expert on insurgencies and warfare at the University of Chicago. “The idea that Venezuelans of any stripe are going to hand over the gold to foreigners is just not likely. And even if they do, people will kill them for the gold."
Write to Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com, Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com and Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com
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