Officials in President Donald Trump's Department of Justice overruled a senior military lawyer who warned that the administration's strikes on alleged drug traffickers in international waters could "legally expose" service members, according to a new report.
NBC News reported on Wednesday that the lawyer, who is unnamed in the report, serves as the senior judge advocate general, or JAG in military parlance, at U.S. Southern Command in Miami. The report adds that the lawyer began raising concerns about the strikes in August, but was overruled by officials at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, citing six sources familiar with the matter.
"The JAG at Southern Command specifically expressed concern that strikes against people on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, whom administration officials call 'narco-terrorists,' could amount to extrajudicial killings, the six sources said, and therefore legally expose service members involved in the operations," the report reads in part.
"The opinion of the top lawyer for the command overseeing a military operation is typically critical to whether or not the operation moves forward," it added. "While higher officials can overrule such lawyers, it is rare for operations to move forward without incorporating their advice."