TAMPA, Florida — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of a former U.S. Green Beret charged in connection with a failed 2020 coup against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, rejecting arguments that he was fleeing while awaiting trial on weapons smuggling charges.
Jordan Goudreau was arrested in july after a four-year investigation into the amphibious assault that ended with the deaths of several fighters by Venezuelan security forces and the imprisonment of two of his U.S. Special Forces comrades in a Maduro government prison.
The plot, revealed by The Associated Press two days before the invasion, was carried out by a motley crew of Deserters of the Venezuelan army who Goudreau reportedly helped arm and train in neighboring Colombia.
Goudreau immediately claimed responsibility for Operation Gideon, or the Bay of Pigs as the bloody fiasco became known. However, he said he acted together with the Venezuelan opposition to protect democracy.
“If I were in his shoes, I would have left before any charges were filed,” Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said as she ordered Goudreau’s release pending the scheduled start of his trial next month.
Goudreau, handcuffed at the legs in orange prison garb, answered “negative” several times when asked in court whether he had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness that would make him a danger to himself and others if released.
Although the 48-year-old has no criminal record and was awarded the Bronze Star three times in Iraq and Afghanistan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman argued that Goudreau was a flight risk and had a reputation for witness tampering that knowingly violated U.S. laws.
Krigsman said Goudreau fled to Mexico within days, where he remained for about a year. to hear that he was being investigatedBefore leaving the US, he conducted a series of Google searches that reportedly included “how to run and stay hidden from the federal government” and “how to be a successful fugitive.”
Krigsman cited excerpts from a conversation Goudreau had with a confidential source in which he allegedly prompted the witness to lie to investigators about about 60 AR-15 rifles seized by police in Colombia en route to the secret camps where the potential freedom fighters were being trained.
Two of the automatic rifles contained traces of Goudreau’s DNA, while silencers, night-vision goggles and other defensive gear bore serial numbers that matched those purchased by Goudreau and his Melbourne, Florida, security firm, Silvercorp. All of the weapons required export licenses that Goudreau never obtained. Some of the weapons never arrived, prosecutors say, because a yacht sank in the middle of the Caribbean, forcing Goudreau and a colleague to be rescued by a passing tanker.
“His meritorious service in the military represents a staggering fall from grace,” Krigsman told the judge, referring to the Canadian-born Goudreau as a “ghost” who had been trained by the Special Forces to “remain invisible.”
According to Marissel Descalzo, a lawyer at Goudreau, her client has never been in hiding and has been in constant contact with investigators through another lawyer who represented him in a lawsuit filed against a former adviser to the Venezuelan opposition leader, who he said hired him to investigate the possibility of a mercenary attack.
She previewed an argument likely to be used in court, saying classified evidence will show Goudreau texted with “high levels of government” in the run-up to the invasion, leading him to believe the U.S. was behind his actions. While the administration of then-President Donald Trump made no secret of its desire to see Maduro removed, there is no evidence that U.S. officials blessed the invasion or the export of weapons in violation of U.S. gun control laws.
Prosecutor Krigsman responded: “If he thought he had been authorized by someone in government, why would he conduct those searches for fleeing the law?”
A Manhattan magistrate initially ordered Goudreau’s release in July, but the order was stayed while the government appealed.
As a condition of his release, Goudreau, who has no residence or possessions of his own other than a sailboat docked in Tampa, will have to wear an ankle monitor. He will also be confined to the North Florida home of a former Special Forces colleague.
A $2 million bond securing his release is secured by an apartment owned by Jen Gatien, a filmmaker behind the documentary “Men at War,” which producers bill as an inside look at Goudreau’s life “on the run” after the failed coup.
If Goudreau is found guilty, he faces a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years.