Attorney General Pam Bondi blatantly refused to confirm memo’s existence to Congress under questioning despite confirmation of Army General Counsel 

October 15, 2025, New York – The Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)’s guidance and other related documents regarding President Trump’s lethal strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean. 

Testifying last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to confirm the existence (or nonexistence) of such guidance. But the same day, in a different hearing, Charles Young, who is nominated to serve as the U.S. Army’s general counsel, acknowledged the existence of this opinion in an exchange with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, explaining that the “opinion was derived through an interagency lawyers working group” including representatives from the White House and several executive branch agencies. Public reporting also indicates that the OLC has issued an opinion, and that it asserts sweeping, unprecedented claims of presidential authority to use military force against people alleged to be affiliated with drug cartels. 

“All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple,” said Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “The public deserves to know how our government is justifying these attacks as lawful, and, given the stakes, immediate public scrutiny of its apparently radical theories is imperative.”

Since early September, President Trump has ordered five strikes on private boats traveling in international waters, reportedly killing at least 27 people. Attempting to defend the legality of the strikes, the administration has stated that drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations are “non-state armed groups” whose “actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.” But the United States is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels, and the people the government’s strikes have killed are civilians under international law. For this reason, members of Congress from across the political spectrum, former government officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations, legal experts, civil society groups, and international bodies say the attacks appear to violate both international and domestic law. 

“In a constitutional system, no president can arbitrarily choose to assassinate individuals from the sky based on his whim or say-so,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy. “The Trump administration is taking its indiscriminate pattern of lawlessness to a lethal level. The public understanding of any rationale supporting such unprecedented and shocking conduct is essential for transparency and accountability.” 

Read the FOIA request here.

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