Judge Orders Release of Secret Memo Guiding Trump Administration’s Boat Bombings

A federal judge in New York ruled that the Department of Justice must turn over a 40-page Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum that has served as the “working law” for a year-long campaign of bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The order follows a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Judge Paul Engelmayer noted that the Department of Defense and U.S. Southern Command have repeatedly cited the memo in public statements to justify the strikes. He ordered the administration to provide the memo and details on its internal circulation, setting a compliance deadline of October 14.

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According to the court filings, the strikes were carried out under the administration’s stated effort to defeat drug cartels in Latin America. The record shows 70 strikes on boats, resulting in the deaths of at least 234 people whom officials labeled “narco-terrorists.” Congressional briefings, however, have not listed the presence of drugs on targeted vessels as a formal targeting criterion.

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The administration argued that the memo should remain confidential to protect attorney-client communications and deliberative processes, but the judge rejected that claim, emphasizing that the agency cannot claim surprise given its own public reliance on the document.

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Baher Azmy, legal director for CCR, warned that “no president can arbitrarily assassinate people from the sky based on their sole say-so.” He contended that even if the victims were drug traffickers, the bombings constitute extrajudicial killings and violate international law. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has also highlighted the lack of evidence that the strikes are accurately targeting drug-related boats, noting that some victims were identified as fishermen with no known cartel ties.

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• “The agency defendants cannot claim surprise from this consequence of the executive branch’s repeated public statements embracing the OLC memo—and it only—as setting out the legal parameters for the boat strikes,” — Paul Engelmayer, judge

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• “No president can arbitrarily assassinate people from the sky based on their sole say-so,” — Baher Azmy, legal director for CCR

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