{"id":72532,"date":"2017-05-12T15:06:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T19:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=72532"},"modified":"2017-05-12T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T19:07:20","slug":"new-tactic-emerges-as-obamas-ex-lawyers-sue-trump-over-syria-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=72532","title":{"rendered":"‘New Tactic’ Emerges as Obama’s Ex-Lawyers Sue Trump Over Syria Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9 AP Photo\/ Ford Williams\/U.S. Navy<\/p><\/div>\n

A United States watchdog group has filed a lawsuit seeking to force Donald Trump\u2019s presidential administration to explain the legal reasons behind a missile strike on a Syrian airbase in April, The New York Times reported.<\/h2>\n

Sputnik International<\/p>\n

On April 7, the Pentagon launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at\u00a0the Syrian military airfield in\u00a0Ash Sha\u2019irat, located about\u00a040 kilometers from\u00a0the city of\u00a0Homs. President Trump said the attack was a response to\u00a0the alleged chemical weapon use in\u00a0Idlib several days earlier, which Washington and its allies attributed to\u00a0Damascus.<\/p>\n

\n

While the missile strike attracted bipartisan support as\u00a0a political matter, its legal basis was disputed, the newspaper noted<\/a>. Moreover, the decision was authorized neither by\u00a0the UN Security Council nor by\u00a0US Congress.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the watchdog group, Protect Democracy, run by\u00a0former Barack Obama administration lawyers, filed a lawsuit under\u00a0the Freedom of\u00a0Information Act for\u00a0all emails, memos and other documents discussing Trump\u2019s legal authority to\u00a0launch the missile attack.<\/p>\n

“We should all agree that in\u00a0our constitutional democracy, the executive\u2019s ability to\u00a0attack another country is constrained by\u00a0the law. Some countries may tolerate a head of\u00a0state launching a new conflict without\u00a0offering a clear legal justification, but\u00a0we should not,” Justin Florence, the group\u2019s legal director and a former Obama administration lawyer, was cited by\u00a0the newspaper.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Radio Sputnik<\/a>, Nikita Danyuk, deputy head of\u00a0the Institute for\u00a0Strategic Studies and Prognosis, the RUDN University, said that the US establishment is engaging a new tactic against\u00a0Trump.<\/p>\n

“There is again public outcry over\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s actions, those actions that once won bipartisan support. We\u2019re witnessing a new tactic against\u00a0Trump. He\u2019s being criticized not for\u00a0his outrageous moves and provocative rhetoric, but\u00a0for a foreign policy decisions that was welcomed as\u00a0successful within\u00a0the US. This is a very interesting maneuver, which could be used to\u00a0attack even Trump\u2019s ‘successful’ moves. As a result, he could be once again discredited,” Danyuk pointed out.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the expert, in\u00a0terms of\u00a0law, the lawsuit is unlikely to\u00a0succeed with\u00a0and attract nationwide public attention.<\/p>\n

“They achieved what they wanted. Taking into\u00a0account the fact that the majority of\u00a0US media outlets are not loyal to\u00a0Trump, they publish this information, portraying Trump as\u00a0a despot and an authoritarian president. I think this is a projection of\u00a0the struggle inside\u00a0the US establishment which still cannot accept Trump as\u00a0a legitimate president. But their goal was to\u00a0spark media buzz, and they did it,” Danyuk concluded.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/sputniknews.com\/us\/201705101053475827-trump-lawsuit-syria-strike\/<\/a>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}