{"id":363969,"date":"2026-10-01T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/us-could-be-forced-to-release-legal-justification-for-boat-strikes-on-drug-traffickers"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:30:20","slug":"us-could-be-forced-to-release-legal-justification-for-boat-strikes-on-drug-traffickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/us-could-be-forced-to-release-legal-justification-for-boat-strikes-on-drug-traffickers","title":{"rendered":"US may very well be compelled to launch authorized justification for boat strikes on drug traffickers"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The United States could be forced to release legal justification for boat strikes<\/a> on drug traffickers in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said the legal justification cannot be released due to national security implications and has not yet told the American public what the legal rationale is for conducting the boat strikes on what they say are drug traffickers headed to the U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer has to first see the document within two weeks, before ruling on whether it can be released to the public through a FOIA lawsuit, he ruled in a 66-page filing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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\"America\"<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>
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Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth posted on his X account that the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on overnight on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea, Oct. 24, 2025.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

@SecWar\/X<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The ACLU and other groups sued to see the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel memo written in September 2025, which essentially offers the legal justification for the controversial strikes.\u00a0The government has argued against the release in court filings.<\/p>\n

Judge Engelmayer rejected the administration’s claims that releasing the document would violate the deliberative process and attorney-client privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But the existing record does not permit the court to reliably resolve whether the agencies have waived their right to invoke the third (the presidential communications privilege),” he wrote. “The court accordingly orders the agencies to furnish information to enable it to resolve that question.”<\/p>\n

The judge also is requiring the DOJ to give a full accounting of who has seen the memo since its inception last year.<\/p>\n

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\"Caribbean<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>
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In this screen grab from a video posted on social media, a boat is shown after being hit with a kinetic strike in the Eastern Pacific.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

@SecWar<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“Using [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan] Caine’s locution, it would be possible for a commander to ‘rigorously follow’ the guidance in the Memo without having seen it, if, for example, its essential conclusions had been communicated by other means,” according to the judge.<\/p>\n

Engelmayer also said the Defense Department general counsel’s attestation that the memo is held in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) in his office “raises more questions than answers.”<\/p>\n

“The fact that a military commander has a ‘need to know’ the legal parameters of his authority does not make him a presidential adviser,” the judge said.<\/p>\n

The DOJ did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the judge’s ruling Wednesday.<\/p>\n

An attorney for the ACLU said the judge’s order on Wednesday “is a huge step in the right direction of ensuring that the government does not get to summarily execute people based on secret law.”<\/p>\n

“The public deserves to know how our government is justifying the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of civilians,” ACLU attorney Jeffrey Stein said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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