Dem senator accuses Pentagon of murder with boat strikes targeting drug traffickers

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in a letter to President Donald Trump suggested that an examination of the evidence indicates that the administration's boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers have killed people who were not participating in narcotrafficking.

"They are murder victims," the lawmaker asserted in the Aug. 3 letter.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, "On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to take on the cartels – and he has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans. All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, and the President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice."

Fox News Digital also reached out to the War Department on Monday.

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The U.S. military has conducted dozens of deadly strikes against vessels of alleged "narco-terrorists."

"In late July 2025, you directed the Department of Defense to conduct kinetic operations to combat narcotrafficking operations in the Americas. You selected numerous organizations for targeting. That target list is classified so I cannot reveal it. Importantly, the classification of the list means that those you have asked the Department of Defense to target are entirely unaware that they are marked for execution," Kaine wrote in the letter.

"In September 2025, the United States launched boat strikes in international waters in the Americas pursuant to your directive. A Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion issued in September 2025 provided legal support for such operations so long as they complied with specific factual conditions. That legal opinion (and the specific factual conditions) is classified. As a result, these conditions are also unknown to those being targeted," he continued.

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"A Department of Defense order implementing your July directive (the EXORD) was issued in October 2025. The EXORD contains targeting criteria that the Department of Defense should use in carrying out your kinetic operations directive. The EXORD and its targeting criteria are also classified," the senator noted.

"My review of your directive, the OLC legal opinion, the EXORD, and the notifications of the boat strikes, makes clear that the United States is engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond those whom the OLC opinion claimed could be lawfully targeted. In other words, a careful review of the available evidence suggests that the United States has killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking," he declared.

Kaine has served in the U.S. Senate since early 2013 and was Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's running mate during the 2016 White House contest that Trump won.

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Kaine asked the president to look into "the extent to which the leadership of the Department of Defense has exceeded your July 2025 directive," and "to halt this illegal, costly and ineffective operation."