Rubio says administration notified Congress after grabbing Maduro

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration called Congress immediately after Saturday’s military operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, saying the White House was afraid of leaks. 

“We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on,” Mr. Rubio said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago. “It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met 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, ‘We may do this at some point in the next 15 days.’” 

Mr. Rubio said that because it was a law enforcement matter, the administration was not required to give Congress a heads-up. 

“At its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice,” he said. “There are broader policy implications here, but it’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify, because it endangers the mission.”

President Trump added that notifying Congress could have endangered the mission because of the possible leaks.

“This would not be good if they leaked,” he said. “I think it would have been maybe a very different result. But I have to say they knew we were coming at some point. You know a lot of ships were out there. They knew we were coming, but Congress will leak, and we don’t want leakers.”