Penn’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to release the secret OLC memo purportedly asserting that President Trump’s ground operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, was lawful.

“The Trump administration has offered no clear legal authority for its use of force against Venezuela, an action that unless legally justified would constitute a violation of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter,” said Professor Claire Finkelstein, faculty director of CERL. “If the Office of Legal Counsel memo can shed light on why the administration believes its actions were permissible under international law, the American people deserve to know their reasoning.”

The details of the memo, which comes from the office in the United States Department of Justice that advises the executive branch on legal matters, are largely unknown.

An earlier OLC memo on the boat strikes reportedly argues that President Trump’s string of lethal attacks against suspected drug traffickers is in full compliance with international law. That memo is said to advance the position of the administration that the United States is legally engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels, and accordingly, asserts that President Trump has the authority to order lethal military operations against alleged drug smugglers.

Since September 2025, the Trump administration has struck 35 boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. These attacks have resulted in more than 120 deaths, according to The New York Times. U.S. estimates put the death count of the military raid to abduct the Venezuelan president at about 75, according to The Washington Post.