Venezuelan opposition’s calls to oust Maduro aided legal case for removal, memo says

The Dec. 23, 2025, opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel also stated U.S. or international law didn’t constrain Trump from ordering the Jan. 3 military operation, citing numerous instances of presidents authorizing missions without congressional approval or United Nations Security Council resolutions.

That and other arguments appeared in a redacted version of the memo that the Justice Department publicly released Tuesday afternoon. But behind some thick black lines was another justification, the people said: The opposition’s lobbying “could be construed" as a request by Venezuela’s legitimate government to depose a usurper in Caracas.

That section appears redacted on the last paragraph of Page 6 of the 22-page memo, according to one of the people who read an unredacted version. One of the unredacted footnotes cites Machado’s comments stating that escalating U.S. pressure was the “only way" to free Venezuela.

In 2024, international observers assessed that Edmundo Gonzalez—a retired diplomat who ran for president after authorities barred Machado from the race—won that year’s presidential election against Maduro. But Maduro disputed the results and held on to power, even as the U.S. and other countries treated the Machado-led opposition as the legitimately elected government of Venezuela.

The Justice Department memo is striking given that it partly relies on Machado’s legitimacy as a legal justification, even as the Trump administration has thrown its support behind Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, and continues to work with her as the acting leader of the country. Trump has praised the regime loyalist, saying she has been “very good," while declaring that Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism for democracy in Venezuela, “doesn’t have the support or the respect" to lead the country.

Machado has allied herself closely with the Trump administration and publicly supported the president’s threats of military intervention in the months before the raid. She has even offered to share the Nobel Peace Prize with Trump, prompting a rare clarification from the Nobel Committee stressing that the award cannot be transferred to another person under any circumstances.

​​ "I believe the escalation that’s taken place is the only way to force Maduro to understand that it’s time to go," she said in October, as the U.S. ramped up its campaign of airstrikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.

The memo doesn’t rely solely on the comments by Machado, who is expected to meet with Trump on Thursday, in its overlapping series of arguments. The legal claims and cited precedents range from a president’s constitutional authority to launch operations, ongoing U.S. counterdrug operations in Latin America and past missions where the U.S. military joined law enforcement to capture alleged terrorists.

Citing the consent of a U.S.-recognized opposition leader as a reason for military action that would otherwise violate international law marks a departure from past U.S. practice, says former State Department lawyer Scott Anderson.

“It would only be sufficient for international law purposes if Machado’s government were able to exercise effective control over the territory and the government institutions," which isn’t the case, says Anderson. That is the same reason why U.S. officials didn’t rely on the support of Panama’s government-in-exile as the legal basis when the U.S. deposed Manuel Noriega in 1989, he says.

The Justice Department initially sent a copy of the redacted memo when reached for comment. A spokesman for the department didn’t comment on the record when asked again about the redacted section related to the Venezuelan opposition.

The U.S. earlier this month captured Maduro and sent him to New York City to face federal narco-trafficking charges. He is being held in a federal jail in Brooklyn.

The memo also cites Maduro’s alleged leadership of the Cartel de los Soles, which it describes as “a shadowy group of high-ranking officers" involved in drug trafficking, although it notes that “the intelligence community has had difficulty corroborating reports that Maduro personally directs this activity."

Since the raid, U.S. prosecutors have softened their earlier depiction of the Cartel de los Soles as a hierarchical organization led by Maduro, instead framing it as a patronage network among corrupt senior officials.

The memo also notes that Maduro’s departure, whether voluntary or otherwise, would likely result in “mass confusion" and notes there is “no clear frontrunner" to succeed him.

Before the operation, a U.S. intelligence assessment determined top members of Maduro’s regime—including Rodríguez—would be best positioned to lead a temporary government in Caracas.

Write to Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com, Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com and Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com