Trump insiders put on notice they're subject to criminal prosecution over Venezuela attack

In a multi-post attack aimed at the Donald Trump administration, Rep Sean Casten (D-Il) pointed out that the attacks on Venezuela, including an invasion of the country in the wee hours of Saturday, put staffers and military officials alike at legal risk.

In an expansive 14-post tirade on Blue Sky, the Illinois Democrats started off by writing, “The legal justification the WH gave us for attacking Venezuelan boats in int’l waters without Congressional approval was weak, and exposes the WH and military staff to domestic and international criminal prosecution. They have not even sought to justify strikes within Venezuela,” before adding, “Their justification - dutifully repeated by every sycophantic member of the House GOP was that some drugs kill Americans so any international actor who sells or traffics drugs is engaged in war against America. You can drive a bus through that logic, as I noted last month."

According to the lawmaker, nothing that he has heard from the administration leading up to the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife justifies the president's actions.

“Before we left Washington last month we were given a classified briefing by Hegseth and Rubio about Venezuela that contained no classified information other than details on the location of certain military assets that were irrelevant to the question at hand,” he reported before pointing out, “That presentation was disrespectful of Congressional time and power at best. Diversionary at worst.”

Making the case that Trump is not the only one who has to be held to account, he explained, “I have no respect for Donald Trump. He diminishes everything he touches. But focusing on him right now is like being bitten by your neighbor’s unleashed, unfenced rabid dog and focusing on the dog. If we don’t hold his enablers to account we’re going to keep getting bit.”

Blaming former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for letting the president of the hook for leading the Jan 6 insurrection, Casten noted, “None of which is to ignore or tolerate the rabid dog. It is only to remind us all that we don’t have a monarchy; but we risk devolving into one if SCOTUS, Johnson and Thune continue to believe it is more important to cower before a felon than to stand up for the Constitution.”

You can read his entire thread here.