January 6, 2026 • 9 mins
ABC News Law Enforcement Contributor Don Mihalek details what went into planning & executing ‘Operation Absolute Resolve.’ ABC News Legal Analyst Royal Oakes gives a breakdown of what Nicolas Maduro is charged with and explains whether or not his capture violated international law.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to the hotline and bring an ABC News
Law enforcement contributor and retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don
Hallick is back with us to talk about the planning
and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve. Don, just like with
what we saw in terms of our military conducting those
incredible strikes on a Run's nuclear facilities, I'm just blown
(00:20):
away by what we've learned up to this point about
this operation to capture Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What has stood out.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
To you, Well, it's always the extent of the planning
that always jumps out of me, because people don't realize
how much it takes to pull off something like this,
and how long the planning cycle is, and what the
individuals involved.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In this case.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The US Army Special Forces probably one of the most
elite units in the world, Delta Force, working with the
one hundred and sixtieth SORE, which is the Special Operations
Aviation Regiment, working together, pulling in federal law enforcement, which
would be the DEA, the Department of Justice, and probably
the FBI HRT at some point to really graft this operation,
(01:04):
put it together, and get it off the ground, and
for it to go as well as it did. It's
pretty amazing. Add into that the fact that it seemed
like every single asset they needed to do this right.
They got one hundred and thirty aircraft to do everything
from fighter cover to helicopters to signal jamming to comms.
They got you know, ships, which is probably why we
(01:27):
saw a lot of the pre deployment of the Navy
ships Bribbean months in advance, which is the lead up
to this. So this really was a very well orchestrated
and well planned that mission of the surgical nature.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really think about it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
They went into a foreign nation to take out a
criminal who has been indicted back in twenty twenty for
narco terrorism and who has continually flaunted his narco terrorist
ties through the Caribbean and impacting the United States in
addition to impacting his own peace. Because Venezuela is essentially
a failed state, which is why through Trump's first term,
(02:06):
through the Biden administration, and into Trump's second term, they
tried a nauseum to get him to take the proverbial
golden parachute and take an exile with a pretty generous
retirement package, which sector Erubio alluded to. And despite all that,
he still couldn't get out of his own way. So
this is the end result of a bunch of bad decisions.
(02:28):
And thank god we have the US military and the
federal lal source and we have that could carry out
something like this and really a minimal scope to capture
the two people that they were targeting. Of course, there
was a loss of life, which is a shame, but
that loss of life, meaning Maduro's own security forces, could
be laid at the footsteps of Maduro because.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He taken the exile.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You know, none of this would have happened.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And in order for this to go as well as
it did, and we're starting to hear more and more
reports about this now, there were significant intelligence assets and
resources on the ground in Venezuela that were assisting us
through the planning of this operation.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But to your point, this all keys off of intelligence,
and it sounds like they had developed a pretty reliable
intelligence source in the inner circle of Maduro who was
feeding them basically his entire pattern of life, so they
could best figure out when and how they were going
to execute this operation, and when was the best place
(03:28):
in time to execute this operation, and also planned for
the contingencies of when they got to this compound, and
when they got in, what they were going to encounter
as far as security forces, you know, relatives, children, that
kind of thing. All that intelligence drives the operation, and
it's pretty amazing that they had that kind of clear intelligence,
both from maduro sources as well as our own CIA
(03:52):
and NSA and other intelligence sources that fed that operation
all the information which proved apparently to be accurate in
order to execute what they did. And you know, that
also speaks to the fact that Maduro clearly wasn't that
popular in his own country if he had his own
people feeding the US intelligence information in order to get
(04:13):
rid of that now de facto dictator, narco terrorist in chief.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
ABC News Law Enforcement contributor retired senior Secret Service agent
and former member of the US Coast Guard, Don Mahallick
with US. Don always appreciate timon insight. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Thanks Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, let's go to the hotline and bring in ABC
News Legal analyst Royal Oaks to talk about a couple
of different things tied to Nicholas Maduro. Royal, thanks so
much for joining us, and I want to start with
what unfolded yesterday at that federal courtroom in New York City.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Can you break down what exactly happened?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was pretty brief. It was an arraignment high noon
Eastern time. Maduro and his wife were brought in. The judge,
ninety two year old Alvin Hellerstein, he's found a bench Cincinnati,
a Clinton appointee, presided over it, and he was pretty strict.
Maduro tried to start talking about how this is unfair,
he's a prisoner of war, and the judge said, you'll
(05:09):
get your chance, but this is not the time. Instead,
yesterday was just the time for an arrangement, meaning we
read the charges narco terrorism, cocaine, machine guns, you say
you're not guilty, and basically, off you go, and the
judge said, we'll see you back here on March seventeen.
They're going to have another hearing that probably will be
a scheduling hearing where they'll say, okay, we're gonna have
dates for motions, dates for discovery issues. No talk about
(05:32):
a trial. Trial could happen within months if Maduro wants it.
More likely his high profile new lawyer, Barry Pollack, who
was Julian Assanges lawyer, will say you know, let's.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Not rush into this.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We need time to prepare our defense. Could be a
year or two before we get to trial.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And he will remain in jail for the duration of
that time probably.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
So what happened was Pollock was asked, Hey, you're going
to try to get bail for your clients, and he said,
not today, We'll see down the road. So he probably
will ask and almost certainly he will be denied because
you know, the flight risks is a big factor, and
you can bet that he might have lots of ways
to escape, no matter what kind of house arrest or
(06:15):
surveillance or ankle bracelet that you used. So the betting
is that he and his wife will be detained through
the end of their trial.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Anything stand out to you about the charges he was hit.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
With, Well, we kind of knew what the charges were
because the indictment was from six years ago. Really at
first Trump administration, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices,
possession of those things, cocaine importation conspiracy, and narco terrorism conspiracy.
Basically a lot a lot of murders and tons of
cocaine being exported from Venezuela. So no real surprises of course,
(06:50):
the Biden administration kind of doubled down. They didn't back
off of the indictment. When they had their four years.
They in fact put up a twenty five million dollar
reward for him, which then was doubled. So yeah, we
kind of knew what they were going after him for.
But we also know that with his high profile lawyer now,
he's going to make the usual arguments that Manuel Noriega
(07:10):
tried to make back in the nineties the Panama dictator, namely, hey,
I got immunity because I'm a foreign leader. This is
not right. Jurisdiction is wrong in America. You know, if
Venezuela law applies, that's fine. Those are going to be
the main defenses they will probably roll out.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
We're joined by our legal analyst, Royal Oaks. What about
the debate over the legality of the operation itself to
capture Nicholas Maduro and his wife?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Can you break that down for us?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Yeah. So, because we've seen this movie before, because we
went into Panama to get Noriega decades ago, and we
got a response basically a big thumbs up from the
US court system, it's pretty clear that even though Pollock
will challenge this and say, you know, he's a prisoner
war so this is not right. Very likely the court
(08:02):
system up the appellate ladder will say, yes, this is correct.
It's not like we were deposing somebody and saying, oh, well,
we just don't like this country. We think they're evil,
and so we're going to depose them or did napp
or kill their leader. What the American judicial system is
saying is, look, we're not charging them with doing something
in the course end scope of his presidency at Venezuela.
(08:25):
Let's assume for the moment he is still the viably
and legally elected president there. Instead, we're charging him with
going beyond that scope and doing stuff having nothing to
do with presidential duties, namely being a drug lord.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
All right, ABC News Legal analyst Royal Oaks with us.
You can follow him on x for more at Royal Oaks.
Royal really appreciate time and insight this morning.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thanks so much, you bet.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
The Ryan Gorman Show on news radio WFLA.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at Ryan Gormanshow dot com.
Let's go to the hotline and bring an ABC News
Law enforcement contributor and retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don
Hallick is back with us to talk about the planning
and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve. Don, just like with
what we saw in terms of our military conducting those
incredible strikes on a Run's nuclear facilities, I'm just blown
(00:20):
away by what we've learned up to this point about
this operation to capture Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What has stood out.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
To you, Well, it's always the extent of the planning
that always jumps out of me, because people don't realize
how much it takes to pull off something like this,
and how long the planning cycle is, and what the
individuals involved.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In this case.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The US Army Special Forces probably one of the most
elite units in the world, Delta Force, working with the
one hundred and sixtieth SORE, which is the Special Operations
Aviation Regiment, working together, pulling in federal law enforcement, which
would be the DEA, the Department of Justice, and probably
the FBI HRT at some point to really graft this operation,
(01:04):
put it together, and get it off the ground, and
for it to go as well as it did. It's
pretty amazing. Add into that the fact that it seemed
like every single asset they needed to do this right.
They got one hundred and thirty aircraft to do everything
from fighter cover to helicopters to signal jamming to comms.
They got you know, ships, which is probably why we
(01:27):
saw a lot of the pre deployment of the Navy
ships Bribbean months in advance, which is the lead up
to this. So this really was a very well orchestrated
and well planned that mission of the surgical nature.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really think about it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
They went into a foreign nation to take out a
criminal who has been indicted back in twenty twenty for
narco terrorism and who has continually flaunted his narco terrorist
ties through the Caribbean and impacting the United States in
addition to impacting his own peace. Because Venezuela is essentially
a failed state, which is why through Trump's first term,
(02:06):
through the Biden administration, and into Trump's second term, they
tried a nauseum to get him to take the proverbial
golden parachute and take an exile with a pretty generous
retirement package, which sector Erubio alluded to. And despite all that,
he still couldn't get out of his own way. So
this is the end result of a bunch of bad decisions.
(02:28):
And thank god we have the US military and the
federal lal source and we have that could carry out
something like this and really a minimal scope to capture
the two people that they were targeting. Of course, there
was a loss of life, which is a shame, but
that loss of life, meaning Maduro's own security forces, could
be laid at the footsteps of Maduro because.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
He taken the exile.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You know, none of this would have happened.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And in order for this to go as well as
it did, and we're starting to hear more and more
reports about this now, there were significant intelligence assets and
resources on the ground in Venezuela that were assisting us
through the planning of this operation.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But to your point, this all keys off of intelligence,
and it sounds like they had developed a pretty reliable
intelligence source in the inner circle of Maduro who was
feeding them basically his entire pattern of life, so they
could best figure out when and how they were going
to execute this operation, and when was the best place
(03:28):
in time to execute this operation, and also planned for
the contingencies of when they got to this compound, and
when they got in, what they were going to encounter
as far as security forces, you know, relatives, children, that
kind of thing. All that intelligence drives the operation, and
it's pretty amazing that they had that kind of clear intelligence,
both from maduro sources as well as our own CIA
(03:52):
and NSA and other intelligence sources that fed that operation
all the information which proved apparently to be accurate in
order to execute what they did. And you know, that
also speaks to the fact that Maduro clearly wasn't that
popular in his own country if he had his own
people feeding the US intelligence information in order to get
(04:13):
rid of that now de facto dictator, narco terrorist in chief.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
ABC News Law Enforcement contributor retired senior Secret Service agent
and former member of the US Coast Guard, Don Mahallick
with US. Don always appreciate timon insight. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Thanks Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, let's go to the hotline and bring in ABC
News Legal analyst Royal Oaks to talk about a couple
of different things tied to Nicholas Maduro. Royal, thanks so
much for joining us, and I want to start with
what unfolded yesterday at that federal courtroom in New York City.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Can you break down what exactly happened?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was pretty brief. It was an arraignment high noon
Eastern time. Maduro and his wife were brought in. The judge,
ninety two year old Alvin Hellerstein, he's found a bench Cincinnati,
a Clinton appointee, presided over it, and he was pretty strict.
Maduro tried to start talking about how this is unfair,
he's a prisoner of war, and the judge said, you'll
(05:09):
get your chance, but this is not the time. Instead,
yesterday was just the time for an arrangement, meaning we
read the charges narco terrorism, cocaine, machine guns, you say
you're not guilty, and basically, off you go, and the
judge said, we'll see you back here on March seventeen.
They're going to have another hearing that probably will be
a scheduling hearing where they'll say, okay, we're gonna have
dates for motions, dates for discovery issues. No talk about
(05:32):
a trial. Trial could happen within months if Maduro wants it.
More likely his high profile new lawyer, Barry Pollack, who
was Julian Assanges lawyer, will say you know, let's.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Not rush into this.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
We need time to prepare our defense. Could be a
year or two before we get to trial.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And he will remain in jail for the duration of
that time probably.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
So what happened was Pollock was asked, Hey, you're going
to try to get bail for your clients, and he said,
not today, We'll see down the road. So he probably
will ask and almost certainly he will be denied because
you know, the flight risks is a big factor, and
you can bet that he might have lots of ways
to escape, no matter what kind of house arrest or
(06:15):
surveillance or ankle bracelet that you used. So the betting
is that he and his wife will be detained through
the end of their trial.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Anything stand out to you about the charges he was hit.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
With, Well, we kind of knew what the charges were
because the indictment was from six years ago. Really at
first Trump administration, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices,
possession of those things, cocaine importation conspiracy, and narco terrorism conspiracy.
Basically a lot a lot of murders and tons of
cocaine being exported from Venezuela. So no real surprises of course,
(06:50):
the Biden administration kind of doubled down. They didn't back
off of the indictment. When they had their four years.
They in fact put up a twenty five million dollar
reward for him, which then was doubled. So yeah, we
kind of knew what they were going after him for.
But we also know that with his high profile lawyer now,
he's going to make the usual arguments that Manuel Noriega
(07:10):
tried to make back in the nineties the Panama dictator, namely, hey,
I got immunity because I'm a foreign leader. This is
not right. Jurisdiction is wrong in America. You know, if
Venezuela law applies, that's fine. Those are going to be
the main defenses they will probably roll out.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
We're joined by our legal analyst, Royal Oaks. What about
the debate over the legality of the operation itself to
capture Nicholas Maduro and his wife?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Can you break that down for us?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Yeah. So, because we've seen this movie before, because we
went into Panama to get Noriega decades ago, and we
got a response basically a big thumbs up from the
US court system, it's pretty clear that even though Pollock
will challenge this and say, you know, he's a prisoner
war so this is not right. Very likely the court
(08:02):
system up the appellate ladder will say, yes, this is correct.
It's not like we were deposing somebody and saying, oh, well,
we just don't like this country. We think they're evil,
and so we're going to depose them or did napp
or kill their leader. What the American judicial system is
saying is, look, we're not charging them with doing something
in the course end scope of his presidency at Venezuela.
(08:25):
Let's assume for the moment he is still the viably
and legally elected president there. Instead, we're charging him with
going beyond that scope and doing stuff having nothing to
do with presidential duties, namely being a drug lord.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
All right, ABC News Legal analyst Royal Oaks with us.
You can follow him on x for more at Royal Oaks.
Royal really appreciate time and insight this morning.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thanks so much, you bet.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
The Ryan Gorman Show on news radio WFLA.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at Ryan Gormanshow dot com.
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