SASC leaders press DOD for legal justification of boat strikes

Source: Roll Call

Posted October 31, 2025 at 4:45pm


The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee are publicly pressuring the Pentagon to provide its legal rationale for the military strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats.

Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., on Friday released two letters they previously sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting the execute orders, legal rationale and designated terrorist lists underpinning the military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that has killed at least 61 people. “To date, these documents have not been submitted,” the news release about the letters said.

Democrats have publicly griped for weeks about the lack of information the Trump administration was providing about the strikes. But Wicker’s inclusion in Friday’s release underscores the frustration is bipartisan.

One of the released letters, from Oct. 6, also notes that at a classified committee briefing earlier in the month, “both majority and minority members requested additional information be provided to the committee with respect to the legal and policy underpinnings and other aspects of these operations to date.” The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the committee’s assertion that the requested documents have not been provided.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/10/31/sasc-leaders-press-dod-for-legal-justification-of-boat-strikes/

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NOTE: "SASC" = "Senate Armed Services Committee"

Link to Senators Reed and Wicker NEWS RELEASE - SASC Leaders Request Defense Department Orders and Information on Counternarcotics Operations

Link to 9/23/25 LETTER (inquiry) (PDF) - https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wicker_reed_joint_letter_secdef_exord.pdf

Link to 10/6/25 LETTER (inquiry) (PDF) - https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wicker_reed_joint_letter_southcom_operations.pdf