Senate Democrats were excluded from a classified briefing on the fight against drug trafficking

A Democratic senator questioned the Trump administration for not including his party in a classified briefing related to recent attacks against boats linked to narco-trafficking and terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. According to the senior Senate official, the meeting was exclusively for Republican lawmakers, who received operational details and the legal justification presented by government officials.

According to sources, the meeting reviewed a classified memo from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel that explained the legal basis used by the Administration to authorize the actions.

Reactions from the Senate

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner criticized that the session was held without Democratic participation, expressing concern over the handling of information linked to the use of military force. In a public statement, Warner called the decision a negative precedent for congressional oversight and insisted that military decisions should be treated with transparency and equal access to information.

"Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous," he said.

Warner also noted that, at a recent meeting on Capitol Hill, he had been personally assured that the Democrats would have access to the legal opinion underpinning the operations and called for that documentation to be turned over.

"The Administration must immediately provide to Democrats the same briefing and the OLC opinion justifying these strikes, as Secretary Rubio personally promised me that he would in a face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill just last week," Warner said.

Requests for information and official position

The military operations have raised questions on Capitol Hill, including concerns about the lack of formal congressional authorization and demands to know more about the procedures and legal framework applied. The situation is unfolding as debate grows over transparency and the limits of executive authority in military actions against drug-related threats.