Justice Department tells Congress Trump doesn’t need its approval for military strikes on alleged drug boats

In this screengrab of a video shared by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on October 22, 2025, a boat is seen shortly before it is hit by a strike, on October 21, 2025. Hegseth said two people onboard were killed. Pete Hegseth/X

A senior Justice Department official has told Congress that the Trump administration can continue lethal military strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional approval and that the administration is not bound by a decades-old war powers law, two congressional sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The head of the Department of Justice’s powerful Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), T. Elliot Gaiser, told select Senate and House lawmakers on Thursday that the US strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean did not trigger the law’