Thank you so much Liz. We need your perspective on this. What is so puzzling and ironic is he arrests this official for Cocaine dealing but pardons an official who was arrested for Cocaine dealing and was quoted saying he wants to put Cocaine up gringos noses. Make it make sense.
Thank you for this breakdown. Question: If the indictment hinges on the fact that he's not the legitimate head of state, isn't that argument undermined by the U.S. installing his Vice President as the head of state to replace him?
He didn't installed her. Our constitution (I am venezuelan) states that in a temporal absence of the President, the Vicepresident becomes President in charge. Our Supreme Court ordered it and she was sworn at the Congress, as our laws demands it, the President of said Congress.
Trump "accepted" her because she is lawfully our President in charge, he did not "installed" her.
That affirmation profoundly offends me and my country, Venezuela. Please, dont repeat it.
Sorry for inaccurately using the word "installed". I didn't mean any offense. My point was about Trump claiming Maduro was an illegitimate leader, and then allowing the vice president to be sworn in to replace him. Are you okay with the word "allowing"? I use that word because I think there's a strong case to be made that had he not wanted her sworn in, it wouldn't have moved forward.
Thanks for this. If for some reason they all plead guilty which I wonder about because the optics have been wired to me almost like he may have agreed to step down sounds like conspiracy I know but then I wonder the outcome
Really solid breakdown of the jurisdictional gymnastics here. The timing on those FTO designations being issued months before unsealing the indictment is exactly the kind of detail that gets glossed over in headlines but matters alot when the case actually moves. Saw something similar once where the predicate acts happened years before the legal framework existed, and watching that unravel in discovery was brutal. What stood out most was the part about flights ending in Mexico being treated as U.S. importation without a concrete entry point.
This is exactly what Trump wanted to do in 2020 - arrest and indict Biden for illigitimate election. He's playing out his dream in real time while once more, deflecting from his Epstein crimes. With Rubio driving the agenda, the next stop is Cuba.
This is a careful reading of the indictment, and much of it is legally serious—but it quietly treats continuity as novelty. The U.S. has used indictments for decades as pressure tools, signaling devices, and sanctions-adjacent instruments against foreign actors it never expected to see in a courtroom—Manuel Noriega, Iranian sanctions cases, Russian oligarchs, and terror-finance prosecutions all fit this pattern. Jurisdiction is stretched here, immunity is a real hurdle, and indictments are not verdicts—but none of that, by itself, makes this an unprecedented abandonment of law. What’s different isn’t the structure, it’s the lack of diplomatic varnish and rhetorical restraint that once made the same practices feel respectable. The deeper constitutional failure remains Congress’s long-running abdication of war- and foreign-policy authority, not the discovery that DOJ sometimes does foreign-policy work with criminal statutes.
DRC v Belgium concerns a customary international law immunity from arrest while currently occupying office as a high government official, correct? Not permanent immunity from criminal liability for the underlying offenses?
Also, if I'm understanding this correctly - did Halligan draft this? - couldn't Putin make this same case, or a very similar one, and "go after" the heads of state of every nation that allowed the pass through of munitions into Ukraine if those munitions were used against Russia within Russian borders?
Much to unpack here but what causes my head to tilt is, if Maduro were visiting the US we couldn't have touched him as he'd have had diplomatic immunity but those same protections don't apply while he's in Venezuela because immunity is territorial and not negated by jurisdiction. He should've stayed at the Hay Adams!
Thank you so much Liz. We need your perspective on this. What is so puzzling and ironic is he arrests this official for Cocaine dealing but pardons an official who was arrested for Cocaine dealing and was quoted saying he wants to put Cocaine up gringos noses. Make it make sense.
As former Biden Administration official Jake Sullivan told Joyce Vance in a recent interview (on her “Civil Discourse” Substack), the Honduran was a right-wing politician who showed deference to Trump, so he earned Trump’s loyalty. Maduro is a leftist who did not. https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/live-with-jake-sullivan-and-jon-finer?r=3bohw&utm_medium=ios
Genius. Well said.
Two things:
One:
I am so glad we have you to help us with Understanding this complicated process
Two:
I am so glad I took a College prep speed, reading course when I was young, still works to this day. 🤣🫶
That being said, thank you so much for doing the lion's share.
Sharing a lesson I learned just last week - If you click on the arrow above an article - there is usually audio available.
Oh sweet thank you
READ AND SHARE. STOP TALKING ABOUT MADURO. AND START SCREAMING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES! DON'T PLAY INTO TRUMPS HANDS!!
https://open.substack.com/pub/levremembers/p/important-message-they-want-you-watching?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=p9h71
Lev is a con. I call him a careful trickler. Just enough to sound ok but never everything you should know.
a centralized leader, surrounded by loyal insiders, allegedly sustaining a long-running criminal enterprise through control of state institutions.
This sounds exactly like Trump.
Thank you for this breakdown. Question: If the indictment hinges on the fact that he's not the legitimate head of state, isn't that argument undermined by the U.S. installing his Vice President as the head of state to replace him?
He didn't installed her. Our constitution (I am venezuelan) states that in a temporal absence of the President, the Vicepresident becomes President in charge. Our Supreme Court ordered it and she was sworn at the Congress, as our laws demands it, the President of said Congress.
Trump "accepted" her because she is lawfully our President in charge, he did not "installed" her.
That affirmation profoundly offends me and my country, Venezuela. Please, dont repeat it.
Sorry for inaccurately using the word "installed". I didn't mean any offense. My point was about Trump claiming Maduro was an illegitimate leader, and then allowing the vice president to be sworn in to replace him. Are you okay with the word "allowing"? I use that word because I think there's a strong case to be made that had he not wanted her sworn in, it wouldn't have moved forward.
Thanks for this. If for some reason they all plead guilty which I wonder about because the optics have been wired to me almost like he may have agreed to step down sounds like conspiracy I know but then I wonder the outcome
They are pleading inocent so far.
Really solid breakdown of the jurisdictional gymnastics here. The timing on those FTO designations being issued months before unsealing the indictment is exactly the kind of detail that gets glossed over in headlines but matters alot when the case actually moves. Saw something similar once where the predicate acts happened years before the legal framework existed, and watching that unravel in discovery was brutal. What stood out most was the part about flights ending in Mexico being treated as U.S. importation without a concrete entry point.
Excellent. You have persuaded me to subscribe. Thank you.
This is exactly what Trump wanted to do in 2020 - arrest and indict Biden for illigitimate election. He's playing out his dream in real time while once more, deflecting from his Epstein crimes. With Rubio driving the agenda, the next stop is Cuba.
Lawfare anyone?
This is a careful reading of the indictment, and much of it is legally serious—but it quietly treats continuity as novelty. The U.S. has used indictments for decades as pressure tools, signaling devices, and sanctions-adjacent instruments against foreign actors it never expected to see in a courtroom—Manuel Noriega, Iranian sanctions cases, Russian oligarchs, and terror-finance prosecutions all fit this pattern. Jurisdiction is stretched here, immunity is a real hurdle, and indictments are not verdicts—but none of that, by itself, makes this an unprecedented abandonment of law. What’s different isn’t the structure, it’s the lack of diplomatic varnish and rhetorical restraint that once made the same practices feel respectable. The deeper constitutional failure remains Congress’s long-running abdication of war- and foreign-policy authority, not the discovery that DOJ sometimes does foreign-policy work with criminal statutes.
DRC v Belgium concerns a customary international law immunity from arrest while currently occupying office as a high government official, correct? Not permanent immunity from criminal liability for the underlying offenses?
Thank you for your work. Well done. It’s good to know the real details that matter.
I thank you immensely as a venezuelan.
F...king T just created a martyr and now we will play our cards.
Also, if I'm understanding this correctly - did Halligan draft this? - couldn't Putin make this same case, or a very similar one, and "go after" the heads of state of every nation that allowed the pass through of munitions into Ukraine if those munitions were used against Russia within Russian borders?
Much to unpack here but what causes my head to tilt is, if Maduro were visiting the US we couldn't have touched him as he'd have had diplomatic immunity but those same protections don't apply while he's in Venezuela because immunity is territorial and not negated by jurisdiction. He should've stayed at the Hay Adams!
We venezuelans do have laws here too, and those give him immunity in Venezuela. USA laws are not extraterritorial.