Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY, said the Trump 'administration falsely claims Congress had already authorized the strike' against Iran's general Qasem Soleimani 'under the 2002 Iraq war resolution.'
The administration's report made public Friday says that Trump "directed this action in response to an escalating series of attacks in preceding months by Iran and Iran-back militias on United States forces and interests in the Middle East region."
"This legal theory is absurd. The 2002 authorization was passed to deal with Saddam Hussein," he said. "This law had nothing to do with Iran or Iranian government officials in Iraq." In its report, the administration said the purpose of the attack on Soleimani was "to protect United States personnel, to deter Iran from conducting or supporting further attacks against United States forces and interests, to degrade Iran's and [that country's] Qods Force-backed militias' ability to conduct attacks, and to end Iran's strategic escalation of attacks on, and threats to U.S. interests.
But Pompeo, in an interview with Fox News, added, "We don't know precisely when and we don't know precisely where, but it was real," Pompeo said in an interview that aired Thursday night on Fox News.authorized Soleimani's killing seven months before he actually was killed.
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