1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

The recent disclosure that the Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to resemble a civilian plane in the September strike that killed 11 people aboard a boat in international waters raises grave constitutional and criminal concerns that require immediate impeachment proceedings. According to officials briefed on the operation, the aircraft was deliberately made to appear nonmilitary, with munitions concealed inside the fuselage. It flew low enough to be seen by the people on the boat, who then turned back toward Venezuela. Under the laws of armed conflict, feigning civilian status to induce an adversary to lower their guard before attacking is the war crime of perfidy. This prohibition is well established in U.S. military manuals and international law. The Trump administration has attempted to justify these killings by claiming the United States is in an armed conflict with drug cartels. Even if that claim were accepted for the sake of argument, the use of a disguised aircraft to carry out a lethal strike would itself constitute a serious violation of the laws of war. Retired senior military lawyers have stated plainly that if the aircraft’s appearance was intended to mislead those aboard the boat into believing it was civilian, the attack was unlawful. Even more alarming, survivors of the initial strike reportedly waved at the aircraft before being killed in a follow up strike, implicating additional prohibitions on attacking the shipwrecked. The administration has offered no public legal analysis addressing these facts, while the Defense Secretary has systematically removed military lawyers who serve as internal checks on illegal orders. President Trump personally announced and celebrated these operations, asserting unilateral authority to wage war against criminal suspects without congressional authorization, due process, or imminent threat. Congress has not authorized armed force against drug trafficking organizations, and no statute permits the President to summarily execute civilians in international waters. These actions implicate multiple grounds for impeachment, including war crimes, abuse of war powers, violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers, and ordering or facilitating unlawful killings. The use of perfidy is not a policy dispute. It is a crime. I urge you to publicly call for impeachment, demand full disclosure of all operational and legal memoranda related to these strikes, and act to reassert Congress’s exclusive authority over war and peace. Failure to respond will normalize executive lawlessness and place the United States in open violation of the laws it claims to uphold.