This week, Democracy Defenders Fund launched two parallel legal campaigns in response to President Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and seizure of the country’s oil.

First is an ethics complaint filed yesterday by former White House ethics lawyers Norman Eisen (Obama), Richard Painter (Bush), and Virginia Canter (Clinton and Obama). The bipartisan trio seeks an investigation of the lawyers at the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) who provided legal advice that justified President Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.

Second, filed today, is a Freedom of Information Act request demanding that the Department of Justice make OLC’s advice public. As DDF and Painter noted in a recent op-ed, they are prepared to take all legal measures to get OLC’s guidance.

The authors go on to note that Trump’s “blood for treasure” adventurism in Venezuela reflects a broader pattern: contempt for the rule of law, corrupt abuse of office to benefit private interests, and efforts to avoid accountability.

The cost of inaction against Trump’s forays into foreign wars is too high, and the window for safeguarding our nation from his illegal and corrupt blood for oil adventurism is narrowing.

Link to ethics complaint

Link to FOIA request

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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.