The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president had been captured and flown out of the country after months of intense pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
The legal authority for the strike — and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand — was not immediately clear.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media on Saturday that both Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been indicted in the Southern District of New York. There has been no public indictment of her.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau confirmed in a social media post that Nicolás Maduro has been removed from power and will be put on trial or punished…
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In a brief phone interview with The Times, President Trump celebrated the success of the mission to capture Maduro. “A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump said. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”
When asked if he had sought congressional authority for the operation or what is next for Venezuela, Trump said he would address those matters during his news conference at Mar-a-Lago in the morning.
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