Jonathan Turley Predicts If Maduro Indictment Will Be ‘Accepted By The Courts’

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Saturday that captured Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro probably will not succeed in getting his criminal charges tossed due to legal precedent from over 30 years ago.

American military forces carried out an operation that culminated in the arrests of Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump announced in a post to Truth Social — adding that U.S. forces suffered no losses during the capture. Turley said the case of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was deposed during Operation Just Cause in 1989, would be the likely precedent. (RELATED: Trump Teases Next Potential Target For Military Intervention After Capture Of Venezuela Dictator)

“He [Trump] has precedent on his side. What Maduro’s going to be rearguing is essentially the case of Noriega, who we did the same type of operation in sort of a snatch and grab and then prosecuted him in that case in Florida,” Turley said. “He made many of the arguments that we expect from Maduro and lost. If anything, I think Maduro presents a weaker case than Noriega. I mean, in this case you have a really extensive record and indictment against Maduro in New York. And, you know, when the vice president, [Delcy] Rodríguez, in Caracas says we want proof of life, you’ll get that. It’s called an arraignment.”

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“And he’s [Maduro is] going to be there in a New York court to answer for these charges and the charges are, of course, very serious,” Turley continued. “The United States government has traced various accounts not just by Maduro, but his henchmen, in foreign banks and they’ve always alleged that Maduro is at the head of a drug cartel that’s pouring drugs into the country. So, I think that this is going to be legally accepted by the courts, that they had a right to do this.”

“There’s obviously going to be challenges and I don’t want to say that something can’t be a jump scare or pop out that we’ll have a problem with, but Noriega is powerful precedent for this action,” Turley added.

Congressional Democrats decried the operation as an illegal use of military force, with some prominent leftists taking to Bluesky to demand Trump’s impeachment. Turley said Maduro’s problem stemmed from the refusal of the Biden administration to acknowledge the results of the disputed 2024 election in Venezuela.

Legally, Trump has the upper hand in this case. Maduro will replay the arguments of Noriega. However, he presents an even weaker case on the merits under the controlling precedent than did Noriega. https://t.co/ylMfum3Jtg

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 3, 2026

“You’re going to start with threshold challenges that are going to be, as I noted, much like Noriega’s challenges, that he was a head of state and had immunity,” Turley said. “That’s going to be a big problem because he really wasn’t a head of state if you ask the people of Venezuela, so the United States and other countries did not recognize that he was elected.”

“To the contrary, they believed his opponent was elected and instead, they viewed him [Maduro] as a usurper and drug lord,” Turley continued. “So making a head of state argument is not going to be very, I think, credible in a court of law.”

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