Bellinger, who served as the legal adviser for the Department of State and the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration, noted that the administration’s own National Intelligence Council concluded in an April 7 intelligence assessment that the Maduro regime “probably does not have a policy of cooperating with [Tren de Aragua] and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.” He said in an email, “Under the most persuasive reading of the Founding era, the Constitution does not authorize Presidents to deploy military force abroad without advance congressional authorization.” Yet, he said, it has “long been the position” of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel “that history has ratified unilateral presidential deployments of military force as long as (1) the deployment serves ‘sufficiently important national interests,’ as judged by the President, and (2) the deployment does not portend a ‘prolonged and substantial military engagement, typically involving exposure of U.S. military personnel to significant risk over a substantial period. He said, “That’s not consistent with the Constitution and it’s not consistent with the purpose and policy section of the WPA, which says that the intent is to make sure that the President’s power to engage in military action is exercised ‘only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.
Author: Robert Farley
Published at: 2026-01-06 23:53:53
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