The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is demanding that the Department of Justice turn over a secret legal memo giving the Trump administration the go-ahead to kill sailors in the Caribbean Sea, addressing growing bipartisan concerns over the White House’s use of lethal military strikes on what it has deemed a new “armed conflict” with South American drug cartels.
“The Constitution does not appoint the president as judge, jury, and executioner. He does not have the power to assassinate civilians on his say-so,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, wrote in a letter to the DOJ on Thursday.
CNN on Monday first reported that the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel — which creates binding precedent on the executive branch — authored a classified memorandum that says President Donald Trump is authorized to use deadly force against those on a secret list of cartels considered national enemies.