Trump administration informed Gang of Eight of Venezuela operation after it started

 The Trump administration informed the “Gang of Eight,” the top Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House and the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, of the operation against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro only after it started, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The administration didn’t give key leaders on Capitol Hill any advanced notice, seeking to maintain the element of surprise while U.S. aircraft and special operators were en route to Caracas.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Saturday defended the administration for not providing Congress with an earlier notification of the operation.

“That’s probably one reason it didn’t leak over these four days as they were waiting for the right weather,” Cotton told Fox News, confirming that key congressional panels were not notified beforehand of the operation.

“Congress isn’t notified when the FBI is going to arrest a drug trafficker or cyber criminal here in the United States, nor should Congress be notified when the executive branch is executing arrests on indicted persons,” he added.

The Arkansas Republican added, “Congress doesn’t need to be notified every time the executive branch is making an arrest.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence panel, said Congress should have had primary authority to approve the military action against Maduro, warning the attack could embolden China and Russia to act aggressively against regional neighbors.

“Our Constitution places the gravest decisions about the use of military force in the hands of Congress for a reason. Using military force to enact regime change demands the closest scrutiny, precisely because the consequences do not end with the initial strike,” he warned.

He said the unilateral action could give justification for China to attack Taiwan or Russia to strike at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership?” he said.

“What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president?” he asked.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said key members of Congress were notified “immediately after” the mission and argued that advanced notice would have put the operation in jeopardy.

“We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on,” he said.

The secretary noted that military leaders didn’t know the precise timing of the action because of unpredictable weather conditions.

“It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met,” Rubio told reporters at a briefing with President Trump in Florida. “Night after night we watched and monitored that for a number of days. So, it’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.'”

“At its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice,” he continued. “It’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.”

Trump told reporters that Congress has a tendency to leak sensitive information provided by defense and intelligence officials.

“Congress has a tendency leak. This would not be good,” the president said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5671149-surprise-operation-maduro-arrest/