As this week got underway, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the latest in a series of announcements: Deadly U.S. military strikes on Sunday killed six people as part of the latest operation against civilian boats in international waters. As this week neared its end, the total grew: The beleaguered Pentagon chief announced the 20th such strike since early September, increasing the overall death toll to 80 people.
The broader controversy surrounding this policy, which the Trump administration claims without evidence is intended to target vessels carrying drugs destined for American soil, remains a multifaceted mess, including serious questions about whether the military operations are legal. What’s more, while Donald Trump and his team have insisted that the boat crews are made up of “narco-terrorists,” an analysis by The Associated Press found that these claims weren’t altogether true.
It’s reached the point that some U.S. allies, including officials in the United Kingdom, have curtailed intelligence sharing with the Trump administration, reportedly because they don’t want to be complicit in the extrajudicial slayings of civilians.
As for the U.S. military personnel responsible for carrying out these deadly strikes, The Washington Post reported last month that “some” junior officers have been looking for legal assurances “before taking part in strikes,” fearing personal legal liability. It’s against this backdrop that The New York Times reported:
A secret Justice Department memo blessing President Trump’s boat strikes as lawful hangs on the idea that the United States and its allies are legally in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels, a premise that derives heavily from assertions that the White House itself has put forward, according to people who have read it. … In reaching that conclusion, the memo contradicts a broad range of critics, who have rejected the idea that there is any armed conflict and have accused Mr. Trump of illegally ordering the military to commit murders.
According to the Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC, the memo was completed in the late summer, and was written by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
It dovetailed with a related Washington Post report, which said that the DOJ memo concluded that “personnel taking part in military strikes … would not be exposed to future prosecution.”
The fact that such a memo was even drafted suggests administration officials were concerned about whether they were on firm legal ground or not.
What’s more, the memo’s conclusion remains a tough sell. After the White House pitched a related line to Congress in early October, claiming that Trump had “determined” the U.S. is in “armed conflict,” Geoffrey Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer who was formerly the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, argued that drug cartels are not engaged in “hostilities” — which would mean the White House was crossing a legal line. “This is not stretching the envelope,” Corn told the New York Times. “This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart.” Nevertheless, there’s little to suggest the administration intends to curtail its deadly campaign. On the contrary, Hegseth on Thursday announced something called “Operation Southern Spear,” which he said will target “narco-terrorists” and shield “our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people.” An Axios report added, “It’s not entirely clear whether Hegseth has attached a new label to the ongoing U.S. operations near Venezuela and beyond, or whether this is the starting gun for a new, expanded mission.” The ambiguities are themselves unsettling. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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