Jordan Goudreau, a U.S. Army Special Forces “Green Beret” veteran facing federal charges for arms trafficking and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, has told a federal court he intends to prove he committed those acts at the behest of officials in the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Goudreau is the founder of the private security contracting firm, Silvercorp USA. He and his firm participated in a 2020 attempt to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power. The May 3, 2020 plot, dubbed “Operation Gideon,” ended in failure as Venezuelan authorities captured the small assault force shortly after they arrived on a pair of boats from Colombia.
The assault force consisted of Venezuelan military defectors, and two other Army Green Beret veterans, Airan Berry and Luke Denman.
While the U.S. government has opposed Maduro, they’ve disavowed any connection with Goudreau and Operation Gideon. This summer, federal prosecutors charged Goudreau with a series of arms trafficking offenses for the weapons he apparently exported for the operation, and for defrauding the U.S. government.
In a Jan. 10 court filing, Goudreau’s attorneys gave notice that they intend to argue Goudreau was recruited for the operation by members of Donald Trump’s first presidential administration.
In the filing, Goudreau’s attorneys said Trump’s long-time personal bodyguard, Keith Schiller, recruited him for the operation. Further, the filing states, “Mr. Goudreau was advised that the operation was sanctioned and approved by the executive branch, particularly, Vice President Mike Pence.”
The Green Beret veteran also posted on his Instagram account on Jan. 10, asserting the CIA and FBI sabotaged Operation Gideon in an effort to harm Trump.
“I want to congratulate the CIA and FBI on a job well done. Because of your efforts in Venezuela in 2020 to sabotage my executive-branch directed operation Nicolas Maduro is getting sworn in today. Good job fellas,” Goudreau said.
Alcalá Cordones, a former Venezuelan military general turned defector, who pled guilty to funneling support to left-wing guerillas in Colombia known as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), has previously asserted he was connected to Operation Gideon and that the plot involved individuals in, “the highest levels of a number of U.S. government agencies,” including the CIA, Treasury Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice and the White House National Security Council.
Alcalá’s attorneys insisted much of the information demonstrating U.S. government knowledge in the plot to oust Maduro would likely be classified and would need to be shared with the defense under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). Judge Alvin Hellerstein, the judge overseeing Alcalá’s case, rejected his requests to dismiss the charges.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
