In classified memo, DOJ determined drug boat strikes are legal under U.S., international law

The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel advised the Pentagon in a classified memo this summer that strikes on suspected drug boats are legal under both U.S. and international law and that U.S. troops would not be exposed to prosecution for carrying out the orders. 

The memo is a 50-page document produced shortly before the Trump administration began airstrikes on alleged drug traffickers transiting both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, The Washington Post reported Saturday.  

Since they began in September, the U.S. military has conducted 19 strikes that are believed to have killed 79 suspected drug traffickers. 

The Washington Post reported that the legal justification for the operation was produced by the Justice Department after Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, advised caution on the strikes. He reportedly wanted to ensure that any such operations were fully vetted, the outlet reported, citing multiple anonymous sources.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said “current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law,” and all strikes have been conducted in “complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.” 

“Lawyers up and down the chain of command have been thoroughly involved in reviewing these operations prior to execution,” he added, in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday. 

“The [boat] strikes were ordered consistent with the laws of armed conflict, and as such are lawful orders,” and “Military personnel are legally obligated to follow lawful orders and, as such, are not subject to prosecution for following lawful orders,” a Justice Department spokesman also told the outlet. 

The OLC opinion lays out the justification that the United States is in an armed conflict with the drug cartels. It reportedly states that cartels are selling drugs to finance a campaign of violence and extortion. 

President Trump has also suggested that Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro is also the head of a narcotics cartel based in his country that trafficks illicit drugs. He has cited the charge as justification for the U.S. military’s growing pressure against the Maduro regime. 

Democrats remain unconvinced of the Justice Department’s argument. 

“It reads as if you gave a lawyer an assignment: Give me the best possible rationale for why this is legal — be as inventive as you like,” California Senator Adam Schiff, a longtime Trump opponent, told reporters. “If that opinion were to be adopted, it would not constrain any use of force anywhere in the world. I mean, it is broad enough to authorize just about anything.”