A U.S. federal judge ordered the government of Donald Trump on Tuesday to confidentially disclose who consulted the legal memorandum supporting military attacks against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific, when they did so, and for what purpose.
The judge Paul Engelmayer, from the Southern District Court of New York, issued the order as part of the litigation seeking to make public a memorandum prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice in September 2025.
According to the resolution, "the Government must provide the court, confidentially, with the identities of those who accessed the document, the dates of access, and the purpose of each inquiry."
The Executive has 14 days to meet that requirement.
The document in question analyzes the legal authority of the president to order lethal strikes—including potential drone attacks—against vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking.
The case was driven by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the NYCLU, and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), who requested the memorandum under the Freedom of Information Act in October 2025 and, in response to the Government's silence, filed a lawsuit in December of that year.
This is not the first time Judge Engelmayer has pressed the Executive on this matter: at the end of September 2026, he had already issued a 66-page resolution ordering the Government to submit the memorandum for private judicial review, rejecting the arguments from the Department of Justice to keep it entirely hidden.
The court argued that the Department of Defense and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) had adopted the reasoning of the memorandum as the operational "legal framework" of the campaign, which weakened the argument that it was merely an internal advisory document.
The campaign of attacks, known as Operation Southern Spear, was launched in August-September 2025 under a presidential directive that authorized the use of lethal force against foreign criminal groups involved in drug trafficking.
Since the first documented attack —on September 1, 2025, against a Venezuelan vessel allegedly carrying members of the Tren de Aragua— the campaign has sparked intense legal and human rights controversy.
As one year of operations comes to a close, the EFE agency has recorded at least 227 deaths, 68 vessels destroyed, and only three documented survivors.
According to reports from InSight Crime, the death toll has risen to at least 238 dead in 79 operations as of today, without the Government presenting public evidence that all the victims were drug traffickers.
The Trump administration has labeled the occupants of the attacked vessels as "narcoterrorists," but the plaintiffs argue that the OLC memorandum should be made public so that citizens can assess whether those attacks have sufficient legal backing.
The new order from Judge Engelmayer seeks to determine whether the Executive can continue to invoke any form of legal privilege over the document, or if its extensive operational use necessitates its disclosure.
The case also has a diplomatic dimension: in February 2026, a boat registered in Florida was intercepted by Cuban border guards near Cayo Falcones in Villa Clara, resulting in four deaths and six injuries, which triggered a diplomatic crisis between Havana and Washington.
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