Arrest warrant issued for ex-Green Beret tied to failed Venezuela coup attempt
A federal judge in Tampa has issued an arrest warrant for a former Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, after he failed to attend a court hearing concerning his pre-trial release conditions. Mr Goudreau, 49, stands accused of plotting to invade Venezuela in 2020.
He was initially arrested last year on weapons smuggling charges linked to the failed coup attempt, which occurred during the first Trump administration. Following a brief period in custody, he was released on bond, with filmmaker Jen Gatien pledging her $2m Manhattan apartment as collateral.
However, Ms Gatien testified this week that the three-time Bronze Star recipient became abusive, alleging he threatened her and others. She also claimed he sent text messages indicating he would resist returning to jail, prompting the hearing on his release violations.
“I believe he intends one day to leave this country,” Gatien said, noting that Goudreau previously lived on a sailboat in Mexico.
Judge Christopher Tuite issued an arrest warrant Friday after waiting 30 minutes for Goudreau to show up for the third day of the bond hearing. A probation officer said the ankle monitor Goudreau was supposed to wear was still located in the Tampa area, where Goudreau was living while undergoing equine-assisted therapy supervised by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“I’m at a loss,” Goudreau’s attorney Marissel Descalzo told the judge. “I have not spoken to him as to why he’s not here.”
Gatien’s new documentary, “Men of War,” is a largely sympathetic look at Goudreau’s slapdash plan to train a mercenary force of Venezuelan army deserters in neighboring Colombia to carry out a cross-border raid that aimed to spark a popular rebellion and remove 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 several would-be freedom fighters killed and two of Goudreau’s U.S. Special Forces buddies locked away in a Venezuelan prison.
Since the movie’s release last month, the relationship between the two has soured and in the weeks leading up to the bond hearing the filmmaker in court filings accused Goudreau of deceit, financial coercion and threatening conduct.
Specifically, Gatien accused Goudreau of reneging on a promise — described by prosecutors as an “undisclosed side agreement” — to pledge his sizable reserves of cash, gold coins and cryptocurrency to mitigate the filmmaker’s financial risk as his sole bond guarantor.
She also shared with the court screenshots of angry text messages, sometimes incoherent and full of profanity, in which he claims “I’m not going back to prison” — a statement prosecutors say indicates his intention to flee.
“I would have gotten zero if he fled,” Gatien testified. “All I got was broken promises for the past year.”
Among those scheduled to testify at the hearing for the government was an Oklahoma couple which was storing some of Goudreau’s belongings, including two assault rifles an associate recently tried to retrieve in possible violation of a court order against possessing firearms while on bond.
In a sworn affidavit, Brande and Jason Woolems explained that Goudreau had called them last month pressuring them to make false accusations against Gatien to block her from backing out of the bond.
