Top Trump administration officials on Monday afternoon were providing the first classified briefing for congressional leaders on the military raid in Venezuela that captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife over the weekend, carried out without informing or consulting with Congress.
The briefing was for a select group known as the Gang of Eight — the House and Senate leaders from both parties, along with the chairmen and ranking members of each chamber’s intelligence committees — which is generally alerted to major military operations before, during or immediately after they occur. In this case, the Trump administration left the lawmakers in the dark, a decision that President Trump has said was made out of concern that they would leak details of the operation before it was carried out.
Those lawmakers were joined at the session by the Republican chairmen and senior Democrats on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were providing the briefing, along with John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Several lawmakers questioned why senior leaders on Capitol Hill had not been notified in advance about the raid, which captured Mr. Maduro and his wife to face drug trafficking charges in the United States.
By law, the Gang of Eight is supposed to be kept apprised of covert operations, although the Trump administration has not always done so.
“President Trump waged war on a foreign nation without authorization, without notification and without any explanation to the American people,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement following the operation.
Mr. Rubio spoke with a number of Republican senators in the hours following the raid. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, an Intelligence Committee member who was among them, later said in a statement that “Congress should have been informed about the operation earlier and needs to be involved as this situation evolves.”
Mr. Rubio has rejected the argument that Congress needed to be consulted about the raid, maintaining in a series of interviews over the weekend that it did not require congressional approval because it was a law enforcement operation rather than a military invasion.
That explanation prompted the top senators in both parties who are charged with overseeing law enforcement matters to complain on Monday that they were not included in the classified briefing about Mr. Maduro’s capture. In a rare joint statement, Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking Democrat, said there was “no legitimate basis” for excluding them from the session.
“The administration’s refusal to acknowledge our committee’s indisputable jurisdiction in this matter is unacceptable and we are following up to ensure the committee receives warranted information regarding Maduro’s arrest,” they wrote.
During a news conference hours after the operation was carried out, Mr. Trump said he had circumvented Congress because he did not trust senior lawmakers to keep his plans confidential.
“Congress has a tendency to leak,” Mr. Trump said.
Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said the president was legally required to brief lawmakers.
“Whether you think Congress leaks or not, the law says you must brief Congress,” he said during an interview on CNN on Sunday. “This is just another example of absolute lawlessness on the part of this administration.”
Administration officials were planning later in the week to provide separate briefings on the raid for all members of the House and Senate.
Robert Jimison covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on defense issues and foreign policy.
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