DOJ Memo Says It Won’t Prosecute US Troops No Matter How Illegal Trump’s Boat Strike Program Is

Legal Issues

from the go-and-kill-likewise dept

Not content to simply deport as many South American migrants from this country as possible, the Trump administration leaned into its lies about the latent threat to national security the mere existence of foreign people poses to national security.

This administration pretends everything is a “war,” even as it actively avoids seeking congressional approval to engage in acts of war. Migrants crossing the border is a “war.” Migrants residing in this country without the proper paperwork is a “war.” And now, foreign people in boats departing from countries Trump deeply dislikes is now an act of “war,” apparently justifying whatever actions the government chooses to take. In this case, it’s a ton of extrajudicial killings predicated on the after-the-fact assertion that alleged drug trafficking is a literal violent attack on America.

The administration’s extrajudicial killing program debuted days ahead of the eventual legal “justification” for murdering people in international waters. Since then, the number of attacks has continued to increase. And yet the administration has refused to provide anything more than conclusory statements in support of its actions, all written by loyalist lawyers who apparently feel their continued employment rests upon their willingness to be on the wrong side of history.

No doubt it does. As the attacks escalate, the administration keeps digging deeper in hopes of finding the magic (legal) bullet that will justify something that looks like straight-up murder. It still hasn’t found anything capable of heading off legal challenges to its boat strike program, but it’s apparently hoping this memo recently issued by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel will prevent anyone in the military associated with these extrajudicial killings from being held legally accountable for engaging in illegal activities.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) stated in a classified opinion drawn up in the summer that personnel taking part in military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in Latin America would not be exposed to future prosecution, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The decision to pursue an opinion, drafted in July, reflects the heightened concerns within the government raised by senior civilian and military lawyers that such strikes would be illegal.

As the Washington Post report notes, more than few people in the higher ranks have questioned this shift towards attacking non-military targets who — at best — are only suspected of participating in drug trafficking. The administration insists (without facts in evidence) that everyone it kills is deeply involved in the international drug trade and are probably high-ranking members of drug cartels.

Obviously, that can’t possibly be true. And it definitely isn’t, as a recent investigation by US journalists made clear. These actions have prompted resignations by US military officials, including Admiral Alvin Holsey, who retired rather than serve a government that has deliberately unmoored itself from constitutional boundaries and long-held American ideals.

Of course, the Nimrods heading the “War Department” could care less about losing even more talent. All Trump and his immediate subordinates desire is more subordination from those in the ranks, especially those expected to support this regime’s authoritarian trickle-down effect.

A Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, has previously denied that Holsey had “hesitation or any concerns” about the mission. A spokesperson for Holsey said he had no information to provide about such discussions.

In a statement to The Post Wednesday, Parnell said, “current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law,” with all actions in “complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.”

Parnell, like all administration spokespeople, is not to be trusted. Everyone speaking for the administration lies constantly, when not otherwise engaged in social media posts even the most racist nine-year-old would find childish.

The memo issued by the OLC goes even further than the sock puppet currently speaking for the entire military. According to the OLC, boat strikes are justified because drug traffickers are using funds to engage in a “non-international armed conflict,” which seems pretty weird when everyone being murdered by the US military are in boats that have left foreign countries and are being sunk while still in international waters.

The OLC also claims the fact that drug money may be used to “finance campaigns of violence and extortion,” which apparently justifies what’s happening to whoever happens to be in boats destroyed by US military attacks. But that assertion is a deliberate twist of phrase that hopes to sweep these boat strikes under the Executive Branch’s absurdly large Article II powers rug. Violence and extortion are definitely part of drug trafficking, but those acts are committed to facilitate drug trafficking. Drug traffickers are not selling drugs to finance these criminal acts with the intent of targeting American citizens with violence. But that’s what’s being claimed here by the OLC, which is hoping to justify extrajudicial killings after the fact.

Just because this administration constantly says things that aren’t true doesn’t make them true, as legal professionals (including former OLC lawyers) are being forced to state with alarming frequency:

Adam Isacson, a scholar at the Washington Office on Latin America, said “there is no proof” that the gangs are using drug profits with the intent of promoting violence or mayhem in the United States.

“These groups are businesses,” he said. “If they are carrying out violence in the United States, they are doing it for profit, not for the purpose of sowing terror.”

Yeah, it’s an absurd assertion. I would assume the release of the OLC’s memo making these claims was greeted by constant [Many people are typing] messages in CIA chat groups. The CIA knows how to sell drugs and topple governments. The boats leaving Venezuela (allegedly) filled with drugs and traffickers ain’t it.

This is a government hoping to back its way into congressional and/or court blessing of its shoot-first, don’t even bother asking questions later off-shore murder operation. And now it’s telling those who might be first against the wall if and when it all falls apart that they don’t need to worry about being murderers because, at the very least, any DOJ run by Trump or one his successor puppets will never treat them like the accomplices they are.

Filed Under: boat strikes, defense department, doj, donald trump, extrajudicial killings, mass deportation, murder, pete hegseth, trump administration, venezuela, war on drugs