A former prosecutor this week raised a red flag about Trump's new strikes against Iran and the "legal fiction" used to authorize them.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pointed out on Wednesday that the Trump administration can't carry on a military campaign without approval from Congress because of limitations set by the War Powers Resolution.
"The Trump administration has claimed the 60-day window doesn't apply because this operation ended when the ceasefire began," Cooper said, talking to former prosecutor Margaret Donovan, who is also a U.S. Army combat veteran who served in Iraq. "Is that accurate?"
"That would not make any sense to me," Donovan said. "It's a legal fiction to say that the operation or that hostilities have ended because there was a ceasefire."
Donovan pointed out, "There was a blockade throughout the entire ceasefire, and we have seen the United States use force against ships and third-party countries throughout that blockade."
The United States blockade is "an act of war," Donovan explained. "It's only legal to employ one when you are actually at war." To say the U.S. isn't at war would mean it's not carrying out a blockade, she added.
A blockade "authorizes the United States to use lethal force against both enemy ships and ships of third-party countries, so it's a very serious act to set up."