After initially saying he “had no problem” with releasing the video of the September 2 attack on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean that killed two survivors, Donald Trump is now changing his stance and leaving the decision to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“I'm fine with whatever Hegseth wants to do,” Trump said.

In an interview with Politico published Tuesday morning, Trump further distanced himself from the controversy when asked if he believed the second attack on the survivors was necessary.

“Well, it looked like they were trying to turn the boat around. But I don't get into that. That's their business,” Trump said.

However, in this contentious environment, civil rights groups have now sued the Trump administration in federal court to force it to release the “legal justification” for his attacks on suspected drug boats in international waters since September, which have killed at least 87 people.

The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its New York branch (NYCLU) in the Southern District Court of New York City after the government failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

This new action seeks to “force the disclosure” of a legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), part of the Department of Justice, which “apparently justifies the current attacks as lawful acts in an alleged 'armed conflict' with unspecified 'drug cartels,'” according to a statement.

The groups note that, according to press reports, this opinion, which is generally treated as binding in the executive branch of government, “It seeks to immunize personnel who authorized or participated in these illegal attacks from future criminal charges for what would otherwise simply be homicides.”

The Trump administration has refused to publish the OLC opinion,but in mid-November it allowed members of Congress and their staff to read it, after which some expressed concern, they added.

Since September 2, they note, the Trump administration has carried out at least 22 attacks on alleged drug-running boats in international waters in the Caribbean Sea under the justification of combating narco-terrorism and has militarized the area near the border with Venezuela, straining relations between the two countries.

Representatives of the plaintiff organizations stated that the public deserves to know how the government is justifying these attacks and stressing that claiming they are legal without providing evidence shows “Trump's disdain for basic transparency, human rights, and the rule of law.”