Top Trump administration officials briefed members of the Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday about strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats off Venezuela.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders and senior members of national security committees for about an one hour, discussing US strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed dozens of people since early September.
President Donald Trump's administration insists those targeted were transporting drugs.
Several senators and House members who attended the briefing said the administration officials said the boats were carrying cocaine, not fentanyl, and explained their legal justification.
Trump’s fellow Republicans said they were pleased with the briefing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson described the intelligence about the vessels as "exquisite," although he said the US knew who had been on board the boats, "almost to a person."
Asked to clarify, Johnson said: "What I know from what I've learned so far, we have high reliability. These are the cartels. These are the people involved in it. They are doing this deliberately. These are not people who are haphazardly on a boat. They are intending to traffic into the country, and it does great harm to the American people."
The strikes have raised tensions between Washington and Caracas, more so as Trump ordered a major military buildup in the region and said his administration will carry out strikes against drug-related targets inside Venezuela.
President Gustavo Petro, leader of long-time US ally Colombia, has been feuding with Trump over the strikes, whose victims have included Colombians. Trump has imposed sanctions on him.
Lawmakers from both parties had slammed the Pentagon as recently as Tuesday for not briefing them on national security issues and said at times top defence officials appeared to be undermining Trump’s own policies, in a rare bipartisan show of frustration with the administration.
The Pentagon, which Trump has renamed the Department of War, on Wednesday denied accusations that its top policy official, Elbridge Colby, was not fully briefing Congress on important national security issues.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Bo Erickson; Editing by Daniel Wallis)