Dershowitz to Newsmax: Trump's Venezuela Strike Constitutional

Harvard University professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax on Friday that President Donald Trump acted within his constitutional authority in a U.S. military operation in Venezuela, arguing the Constitution does not require advance notice to Congress for a limited, one-time action.

Appearing on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," Dershowitz rejected claims that Trump violated the law by committing military action in Venezuela, calling the operation a constitutional exercise of executive power under Article II.

"Of course not," Dershowitz said when asked whether the action was illegal. He pointed to what he described as the "best precedent," President Barack Obama ordering special operation forces into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden without seeking prior authorization from Congress.

Dershowitz said the mission involved entering a foreign country without that country's approval, and he likened it to what he called the "capture" of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, another "one-off."

Dershowitz argued that nothing in the Constitution requires prior notice to Congress for such actions and said advance notice can undermine operational security. He said a Congress "leaking like a sieve" makes prior notification a "terrible idea," and he contended that the bin Laden raid, and the Venezuela action he discussed, could have been jeopardized by early disclosures.

At the same time, Dershowitz drew a distinction between a discrete operation and a sustained military commitment. He said a continuing military occupation, or any claim that the United States is "running Venezuela now," would present a very different legal posture from a limited action.

He also said key details remain unclear.

"We don't know what's going on," Dershowitz said, adding that he did not know whether the president was doing more than threatening further steps. He said threats themselves fall within the president's Article II powers.

On the question of congressional notice, Dershowitz said awareness through reports as events unfold amounts to notice "in every realistic sense of the term." He added that when notifying congressional leaders would not endanger an operation, a president "ought to do it" to build support, but he said extraordinary partisanship makes that support unlikely.

Dershowitz addressed the Constitution's assignment to Congress of the authority to declare war by arguing that modern practice has moved far beyond formal declarations. He cited what he described as Justice Department rulings asserting that declarations of war are not required even for extensive military actions, and he said the nation has fought major conflicts without declaring war.

He called the concept of declaring war an "anachronism" and said the last declaration, in his telling, came against Romania after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. He also cited presidencies from both parties, including Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy, as examples of presidents who conducted military actions without war declarations.

"So at the moment, the president has done nothing to violate either the Constitution or the War Powers Act, even if the War Powers Act is constitutional, and the War Powers Act, to the extent that it constrains the president's Article II authority, has some very serious constitutional limitations," he said.

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