The secret legal memo justifying boat strikes was signed on September 5, 2025.
Posted by Behind the Bastards, Checked
- Sources
- 3 support4 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 80%
Behind the BastardsOct 3, 2026
Multiple sources, including a federal court filing and a court-record-based report, state the Office of Legal Counsel memo was issued or signed on September 5, 2025, three days after the first boat strike on September 2. The claim matches the extracted passage, though most sources are unrated and several trace back to the same court record.
What was said
… Instead, it's a, quote, non international armed conflict, and quote. For a separate WAPO article, the Trump admin's legal justification, quote, does not stand up to the facts, end quote, to lawyers inside and outside the government. While this memo was produced during the summer, it was not signed until September 5th of 2025, after the first boat strike occurred, according to The Guardian. The memo states that these groups are using the proceeds from drug trafficking to wage war, which is something that the Taliban did, but that experts have said these cartels designated as FTOs or DTOs are simply not doing. …
Behind the Bastards · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. WOLA's analysis describes a secret memo from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel signed on September 5, 2025, after the first attack, citing reporting by the Washington Post and the Guardian.[3]
Supports. A court-record-based report states the Office of Legal Counsel issued the memo on 5 September 2025, three days after the first strike, and that members of Congress described it as 48 to 49 pages.[4]
Supports. An ACLU court filing states that on September 5, 2025, three days after the first strikes, the Office of Legal Counsel issued the memo, citing a senator's letter as the source.[5]
Context. Judge Engelmayer's order and related reporting describe the memo as created in September 2025 and ordered produced for private judicial review, without contradicting the September 5 date.[6][7]
Context. The Associated Press and PolitiFact coverage confirms the memo and the early-September 2025 strikes but does not itself state the signing date.[1][2]
Sources
7 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 5 not rated
- 1US is in 'armed conflict' with drug cartels, Trump saysapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Was the US attack against a 'drug-carrying boat' legal?politifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3Killing Spree: Extrajudicial executions in the U.S. boat strikes campaignwola.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Judge Paul Engelmayer's Boat Strike Ruling: 14-Day Orderriotimesonline.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Microsoft Word - ACLUSept29FINAL - cleanstorage.courtlistener.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Judge orders Trump DOJ to produce boat strikes memoallrisenews.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 7OPINION & ORDER re: 75 MOTION for Reconsideration re; 72 ...cases.justia.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Justice Department signed a secret opinion in the summer of 2025 justifying boat strikes by stating the United States was in an armed conflict with narco-terrorists.Mixed
- On September 2, 2025, a U.S. military strike killed nine people on a boat in the Caribbean.True
- In August 2025, the Department of Defense issued an execute order containing targeting instructions that required reasonable certainty rather than positive identification of a target.True
- In mid-2025, Donald Trump signed a classified directive authorizing the military to use force against a list of 24 drug trafficking organizations.True
- In August 2025, the U.S. military issued an execute order requiring reasonable certainty that a target is affiliated with a drug trafficking organization to authorize a strike.True