US Lawmakers Ask Trump to Show Legal Basis for Syria Missile Strike

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — President Donald Trump must provide a detailed account of the legal reasons for his strike against the Sha'irat airbase in Syria on April 6, US Senator Tim Kaine and Congressman Adam Schiff said in a letter to Trump, according to a press release from Kaine's office on Tuesday.

"Yesterday, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, sent a letter to President Trump asking that he detail the legal basis for the strike against the Shayrat airbase in Syria on April 6th, which has yet to be provided to Congress and the American people," the release stated.

The release noted that without a full understanding of the legal basis for the strike, the US Congress will be unable to exercise its constitutional abilities.

Both Schiff and Kaine believe the missile strikes were unlawful because Trump failed to secure Congressional approval before taking action, the release added.

Trump said the missile strike against the Ash Sha'irat government airbase in Syria was in retaliation for the chemical attack on Syrian civilians in Khan Sheikhoun two days earlier.

The Syrian government denied having chemical weapons or ever using such weapons on anyone. In January 2016, the Organization for Prevention of Chemical Weapons announced it had destroyed Syria’s entire chemical weapons arsenal as per an agreement reached by the Syrian government.