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a federal judge in tampa Has ordered the arrest of a former Green Beret accused of plotting the attack Venezuela In 2020 he failed to appear in court for a hearing on whether he should be returned to custody for violating the terms of his pre-trial release.
Jordan Goudreau, 49, was arrested on arms trafficking charges linked to a failed coup attempt earlier last year. trump Administration.
He was released after a few weeks in jail when film producer Jane Gatien mortgaged his $2 million Manhattan apartment, where the combat veteran was living, as collateral for a bond. In testimony this week, Gatien detailed how the three-time Bronze Star recipient abused her, alleging he threatened to harm her and others and sent text messages saying he would not go back to prison.
“I believe he intends to leave this country one day,” Gatien said, noting that Goudreau previously lived on a sailboat in Mexico.
Judge Christopher Tuite issued an arrest warrant Friday after Goudreau waited 30 minutes to appear for the third day of a bond hearing. A probation officer said the ankle monitor that Gaudreau had to wear was still located in the Tampa area, where Gaudreau was living while undergoing equine-assisted therapy under the care of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Goudreau’s attorney, Maricel Descalzo, told the judge, “I am at a loss.” “I haven’t talked to him about why he’s not here.”
Documentary about Venezuelan raid
Gatien’s new documentary, “Men of War,” is a largely sympathetic look at Goudreau’s slapdash plan to train a mercenary army of Venezuelan army deserters in neighboring Colombia to conduct cross-border raids, intended to incite a popular uprising and oust the president. Nicolas Maduro,
The plot, exposed by the Associated Press two days before the incursion, never stood a chance against Maduro’s far superior security forces and ended with the assassination of several would-be freedom fighters and two of Goudreau’s U.S. special forces friends in a Venezuelan prison.
Since the film’s release last month, the relationship between the two has soured and in the weeks before the bond hearing the filmmaker accused Goudreau of fraud, financial coercion and threatening conduct in a court filing.
Specifically, Gatien accused Goudreau of reneging on a promise to pledge his large reserves of cash, gold coins and cryptocurrencies to mitigate the filmmaker’s financial risk as his sole bond guarantor – which prosecutors described as an “undisclosed side agreement.”
He also shared with the court screenshots of angry text messages, sometimes incoherent and filled with profanity, in which he claims “I’m not going back to jail” – a statement prosecutors say indicated his intent to flee.
Gatien testified, “If he had run away I would have got zero.” “All I got from last year were broken promises.”
Search for assault rifles
One of the people who testified at the hearing on behalf of the government was oklahola The couple was storing some of Goudreau’s belongings, including two assault rifles, which an associate recently tried to retrieve in possible violation of a court order against possessing firearms while on bond.
In an affidavit, Brande and Jason Woollems said Goudreau had called them last month and pressured them to file false charges against Gatien in order to prevent him from getting out of bond.
The couple said in their sworn statements that Goudreau asked them to sign statements accusing Gatien of abuse.
“When we refused, he called us ‘Judas’ and repeatedly shouted angrily at us, accusing us of betrayal,” they said in the statement.
Bay of Piglets
The 2020 invasion, known as the Bay of Piglets, stands as a cautionary tale of the often amateurish way the Trump administration has conducted regime change in Venezuela.
These criticisms have intensified in recent weeks as Trump-deployed naval flotillas have carried out several deadly attacks on suspected drug-trafficking boats departing from Venezuela and the president has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside the South American country.
Amid growing concern about a possible US invasion, Goudreau has re-emerged as a media pundit who is popular among Trump supporters and “radical left” critics alike.
In recent interviews, Goudreau has at times criticized so-called deep-state actors – among them the CIA and the State Department – that he blames for “sabotaging” his secret mission, which he says he previously received a wink-wink blessing from the Trump administration.
He said, many of the same artists are once again trying to derail Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Meanwhile, he called Trump’s accusations “a fabrication of the CIA” that Maduro is the leader of the So-called Sons Cartel of drug-running military officers.
“What happens next if we invade Venezuela?” he recently told Russian state-owned RT. “The truth of the matter is that the Venezuelan opposition is just as brutal and tyrannical as the Venezuelan regime under Nicolás Maduro.”
Conspiracy to remove the President from office
Goudreau, who was born in Canada, said he became a believer in Venezuelan democracy after working security at a benefit concert in Colombia to deliver humanitarian aid across the border.
Despite his lack of Spanish, he became close to many exiled associates of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom the US then recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Over several months, plans were made to invade Venezuela with the goal of provoking a popular rebellion. As part of that effort, Goudreau signed a contract with Guaidó’s team, although the two parties parted ways a few months before the raid under new leadership possibly infiltrated by Maduro’s intelligence services.
Goudreau was due to go on trial in February on charges of failing to obtain an export license for sending about 60 AR-15 rifles to secret camps where would-be freedom fighters were being trained.
According to prosecutors, two rifles seized in Colombia contain traces of Goudreau’s DNA, while the serial numbers of suppressors, night-vision goggles and other equipment match those of rifles purchased by Goudreau and his Melbourne, Florida-based security firm Silvercorp.
Gatien registered a Florida production company with Goudreau in 2021 and was described in court records as his girlfriend. In testimony Gatien denied being anything more than good friends with Goudreau, who had lived with him for two years while attending the New York Film Academy.