Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed a group of top congressional members behind closed doors on Wednesday following President Trump’s orders for a wave of unprecedented U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats that are raising the specter of a new war.

Legal analysts have broadly described the strikes as illegal under both U.S. and international law — in part because they have not been authorized by Congress.

Trump officials invited a dozen members of Congress, including Republican and Democratic leaders and the top lawmakers on intelligence and armed services committees in both chambers. A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers have submitted months of demands for more information on the attacks.

Since the strikes began in September, at least 66 have been killed in 16 strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, according to the administration. Trump said last month he approved covert operations in Venezuela, which was followed by orders to send a surge of U.S. naval forces to the waters off South America. Pentagon officials said the country’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and its strike group, which marks 20% of the Navy’s deployed warships is now headed for the region.

On Tuesday, the White House disputed claims it wasn’t being transparent enough with Congress regarding the strikes and military buildup in the region. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the meeting is a top example of their cooperation and said his appearance marks the ninth briefing so far.

“The president made it very clear if senators want to understand the administration’s operations against narco-drug traffickers, we are very happy to speak with them about that,” she said.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, agreed. 

“The administration has kept me and other members fully advised, fully satisfied with what they’re doing,” Risch said after Wednesday’s briefing. 

However, several Democrats complained that earlier congressional briefings were limited in scope and key information was only shared with Republicans.

Last week, top Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Trump administration officials for holding a closed-door briefing with about a dozen GOP Senators — and no Democrats. Warner said someone should be “fired” for the oversight.

“We hit a new low, what the administration did in the last 24 hours is corrosive not only to our Democracy but downright dangerous for our national security,” Warner, D-Va., said.

After Wednesday’s meeting, Warner said he remains perplexed why the U.S. has upended its drug interdiction program that allows the Coast Guard to instead detain suspected drug vessels and pursue criminal charges after obtaining evidence. 

“Showing by interdiction, and drug recovery, and … that the individuals on the boats are known narco-terrorists would sure go a long way in convincing Americans and for that matter, the rest of the world,” Warner, D-Va., said. 

Top House Intelligence Committee Democrat Jim Himes said while there’s high confidence in U.S. intelligence providing information on targets, he remains worried some of those killed are not who the administration claims and other information gaps. Himes said at least now, the administration is starting to share information. 

“In my world and the intelligence world, when something is done, we get a great deal of detail on every operation. That has not been shared,” Himes, D-Conn., said. “Finally they’ve started to notify Congress of this stuff, until basically ten days ago we had nothing.” 

He said the administration has finally shared their legal defense for the strikes at sea, and some additional information on military operations.

“But don’t misunderstand me, lots of mistakes could get made,” he added. “But they are applying the eyes and ears of our intelligence community to these boats.”

Wednesday’s meeting marked the first time Rubio and Hegseth briefed top lawmakers on the strikes since they began more than two months ago. During this time, members have complained they did not have a legal basis for Trump’s orders for the attacks, access to a secret list of targets or broader information on evidence recovered and identities of those killed.

A small bipartisan group of lawmakers intends to force a vote to block Trump’s use of military forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela. Behind closed doors, Trump officials have been lobbying Republicans to vote no.

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., introduced the war powers resolution after Trump said he was entertaining the possibility of military strikes inside Venezuela. They argue that — as laid out clearly by the Constitution — Congress retains the authority to declare war, not the president.

An earlier vote to limit the strikes in the Caribbean failed. Two Republicans, Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats in the 48-51 vote. However, Kaine argued this new vote has a shot at passage, reflecting the earlier resolution’s focus on the Caribbean turned off some members and this resolution is more clear cut.

An Orange County park was temporarily shut down Tuesday after two people reported mountain lion sightings the day before.

In one of the incidents, a pair of cyclists filmed a mountain lion following them along a cliffside trail, behavior that wildlife officials described as unusual.

Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park will be closed until further notice “out of an abundance of caution,” OC Parks said in a statement.

Parks staff are working with researchers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and biologists at UC Davis’ Wildlife Health Center to better understand the mountain lion’s behavior, Danielle Kennedy, public information officer with OC Parks, said in an email. They plan to place cameras around the park to track the animal’s activity and look for evidence such as fresh tracks and scat, she said.

UC Davis biologists are also reviewing the video provided by one of the bikers, who reported the encounter to authorities, Kennedy said.

The video posted to Facebook on Monday shows the mountain lion emerging from the brush to follow the cyclists along the trail, which was flanked by a steep hill on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. The cougar continues advancing as the cyclists shout for it to get back. At one point, it pauses and watches them back away, then seemingly charges, jumping to the side of the trail just before it reaches them. ABC7 first reported on the video.

“This is super out-of-the-ordinary behavior,” said Cort Klopping, a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson. Pumas typically avoid people — to the point where a person is a thousand times more likely to be struck by lighting than attacked by a mountain lion, he said.

It’s unclear why the animal was so interested in the cyclists, Kennedy said. Some online commenters of the video speculated it was a mother attempting to escort the bicyclists away from her cubs. In February, researchers collared a female mountain lion in Orange County that had offspring at the time, Kennedy said. UC Davis biologists have confirmed this collared female was in Whiting Ranch on Monday, but it wasn’t clear whether she still had cubs with her, and the mountain lion captured on the video was not collared and was unknown to the biologists, Kennedy said.

Based on the video, UC Davis biologists believe the mountain lion — a juvenile of an undetermined gender — was displaying behavior related to curiosity, rather than acting defensively, Kennedy said. It is unclear whether the same mountain lion was involved in both sightings, she said.

Lindsay Velez, who lives in nearby Rancho Santa Margarita, said she ran into the two mountain bikers Monday as they exited the trail, which she was preparing to hike up with her 12-year-old daughter. They showed her the video and warned her away, she said.

Velez said she’s aware that mountain lions frequent the area: “I carry bear spray with me everywhere, and not for bears.” But it seems like there’s been an uptick of activity in the last week, she said, adding that a friend of hers reported seeing a mountain lion in the backyard of her home not far from Whiting Ranch the same night.

With its steep hillside and dense brush, the park in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains has a history of mountain lion activity. There have been three mountain lion attacks there since 2004, Kennedy said, including one that resulted in the death of Mark Reynolds, 35, who was mauled when he crouched down on a trail to fix his bicycle chain.

Still, Reynolds’ death was just the sixth on record in California, according to a Times report in its aftermath. Since then, one more death has been recorded — that of Taylen Robert Claude Brooks, 21, who was killed by a mountain lion while he was searching for deer antlers in northern El Dorado County last March.

Those who encounter a mountain lion should take care not to turn their back on it and should make themselves seem as large as possible by extending their arms and making a lot of noise, Klopping said. They should back away slowly, rather than run, and take care not to crouch or bend over, he said.

Pets should be kept on-leash so they don’t approach the animal, and small children should be held close, ideally up on an adult’s shoulders, he said. People should also make sure the animal has a clear escape route, he said.

People can reduce the risks of such encounters in areas prone to sightings by refraining from biking or jogging at dawn, dusk or nighttime, and it’s best to partake in those activities in groups, Klopping said.