As United States President Donald Trump continues to expand the American military presence in the Caribbean, Democratic lawmakers are demanding a federal criminal investigation into US military strikes on suspected narcotics trafficking vessels in the region.
Congressmen Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, have written to US Attorney General Pam Bondi calling on the Department of Justice to open a criminal probe into what they describe as unlawful and lethal military actions carried out by the Trump administration in Caribbean waters.
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In their letter, the lawmakers referenced what they described as deeply troubling reports surrounding an incident on September 2, 2025. According to those reports, US forces launched an initial strike on a small vessel in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. That attack was allegedly followed by a second strike targeting two survivors who were clinging to debris in the water. The lawmakers said the incident raised serious concerns that senior officials within the Department of Defense may have ordered or condoned actions that violate both international humanitarian law and US criminal statutes.
Lieu and Raskin asserted that the broader Caribbean operation itself appears to be unlawful. They emphasized that Congress has not authorized the use of military force against Venezuela, nor does a vessel traveling toward Suriname present a clear or imminent threat to the United States. They also said that classified legal justifications provided by the administration to lawmakers have failed to convincingly support the strikes.
The congressmen argued that deliberately targeting incapacitated individuals constitutes a clear violation of the Department of Defense Law of War Manual, which explicitly prohibits attacks on persons rendered helpless by shipwreck. They said such actions could amount to war crimes under the War Crimes Act if the administration claims it is engaged in an armed conflict, or murder under federal law if no such conflict exists.
They further criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for what they described as inconsistent explanations of the incident. According to the lawmakers, Hegseth has alternated between citing confusion caused by the fog of war and denying that he personally authorized an order to kill the survivors.
Lieu and Raskin stressed that issuing or carrying out an order to kill survivors is unlawful under any circumstances and that following orders does not provide a legal defense when those orders are clearly illegal. They rejected any suggestion that classified legal opinions or prior Office of Legal Counsel memoranda could justify the killing of survivors after an initial strike.
They noted that previous OLC opinions were narrowly confined to congressionally authorized armed conflicts involving enemy combatants posing imminent threats, conditions they said are clearly absent in this case.
The lawmakers also pointed to comments from conservative legal scholar John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general and author of the widely criticized OLC torture memoranda. Even Yoo, they noted, has stated that the administration’s actions violated both US federal law and the law of armed conflict.
They argued that outside of a legally recognized war, the killing of unarmed individuals clinging to wreckage in open water constitutes murder. Under federal law, murder committed within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, which includes the high seas, is a felony. Conspiracy to commit murder is also a federal crime.
Lieu and Raskin are therefore demanding that Attorney General Bondi investigate what they described as serious and apparent violations of federal criminal law by Defense Secretary Hegseth.
Concerns about the military buildup were also raised last Thursday by Democratic Senator Peter Welch during remarks on the Senate floor. Welch warned about the deployment of National Guard troops, warships, and fighter jets to the Caribbean and urged Congress to enforce the War Powers Act before the United States becomes embroiled in another unauthorized conflict.
Welch said the Trump administration has failed to provide lawmakers with sufficient information regarding recent military operations in the region and called for transparency and accountability following strikes that reportedly killed nearly 100 people.
He questioned the stated rationale for the deployment, arguing that the scale of military assets involved goes far beyond drug interdiction. Welch said the presence of warships, a carrier group, and support forces suggests an effort aimed at regime change in Venezuela.
In October, Welch voted in favor of a War Powers Act resolution seeking to halt what he described as unconstitutional military actions in the Caribbean and urged the Senate to scrutinize the president’s legal authority to initiate hostilities.
Meanwhile, amid mounting pressure to release video footage of a boat strike that allegedly killed survivors, Hegseth declined to make the material public. He told reporters last Tuesday that the administration would not release a top secret, full, unedited video to the general public.
