George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Saturday that captured Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro will likely be unable to get criminal charges against him dropped because of legal precedent dating back more than 30 years.
American military completed The operation, which culminated in the arrest of Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump announced in a statement. mail in Truth Social, adding that American troops suffered no casualties during the takeover. Turley said a likely precedent would be the case of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was overthrown by Operation Just Cause in 1989. (RELATED: Trump Names Next Potential Military Intervention Target After Capturing Venezuelan Dictator)
“He [Trump] has precedent on its side. What Maduro will be discussing is essentially the Noriega case, which we did a similar operation on and then prosecuted him in that case in Florida,” Turley said. “He made many of the arguments we expect from Maduro, and he lost. If anything, I think Maduro makes a weaker case than Noriega. I mean, in this case, you have a really extensive dossier and indictment against Maduro in New York. And, you know, when the vice president, [Delcy] Rodriguez from Caracas says we need proof of life and you will get it. This is called arraignment.
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“And he [Maduro is] “I will be in court in New York to answer to these charges, and the charges are, of course, very serious,” Turley continued. “The United States government has been monitoring various foreign bank accounts of not only Maduro but also his cronies, and they have always maintained that Maduro is the head of a drug cartel that is flooding the country with drugs. So I think it will be legally recognized by the courts that they had the right to do so.”
“Obviously there will be problems, and I don't want to say that there might not be something that is a jump or a jump-off that we would have problems with, but Noriega is a powerful precedent for this action,” Turley added.
Congressional Democrats condemned operation as an illegal use of military force, with some notable left I'm going to Bluesky to demand Trump impeachment. Turley said Maduro's problem arose from the Biden administration's refusal to accept the election results. contested Elections 2024 in Venezuela.
Legally, Trump has the advantage in this case. Maduro will repeat Noriega's arguments. However, he presents an even weaker case on the merits within controlling precedent than Noriega. https://t.co/ylMfum3Jtg
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 3, 2026
“You'll start with threshold problems, which, as I noted, will be very similar to Noriega's problems in that he was head of state and had immunity,” Turley said. “It will be a big problem because he was not actually the head of state if you ask the people of Venezuela, which is why the United States and other countries did not recognize that he was elected.”
“On the contrary, they believed that his opponent had been elected, and instead considered him [Maduro] as a usurper and drug lord,” Turley continued. “So the arguments of the head of state, I think, will not be very convincing in court.”
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