When White House officials wanted to know if President Donald Trump could send the U.S. military to help capture President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, a special unit in the Justice Department assured them it was legal.

When the administration was preparing to strike suspected drug traffickers’ boats on the open sea without congressional approval, the same small unit declared the action permissible.

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When the White House asked if the Presidential Records Act was constitutional, the office ruled it was not, giving Trump the apparent green light to save fewer records from his second term.

As the Trump administration pushes the bounds of executive power, the Justice Department unit known as the...