DOJ Probes Classified Intel Leak to New York Times Challenging Deportation of Venezuelan Gang Members

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โ€˜We will not tolerate politically motivated efforts by the Deep State to undercut President Trumpโ€™s agenda by leaking false information,โ€™ a DOJ official said.

The Justice Department announced Friday that it has opened a criminal investigation into a leak of classified intelligence regarding the Tren de Aragua gangโ€”information that was reported by The New York Times and appears to challenge the legal foundation for President Donald Trumpโ€™s recent deportation efforts targeting the violent transnational gang.

In a statement issued March 21, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating what he called the โ€œselective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classifiedโ€ intelligence about Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

The gang has become a key focus of Trumpโ€™s immigration and national security agenda. On March 15, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Actโ€”a rarely used wartime lawโ€”to declare members of Tren de Aragua โ€œalien enemiesโ€ invading the United States in coordination with the Venezuelan regime.

The proclamation allows for their immediate arrest and deportation without standard due process protections. However, this move has faced legal challenges and public scrutiny.

The New York Times reported Thursday that a leaked intelligence document dated Feb. 26 challenges the legal basis for Trumpโ€™s designation of the criminal group as โ€œalien enemies.โ€

According to the document, analysts assessed with โ€œmoderate confidenceโ€ that the gang is not acting under the direction or in coordination with the Venezuelan governmentโ€”a key assertion in Trumpโ€™s proclamation. The Epoch Times has not independently verified the leaked report.

Trumpโ€™s proclamation described the group as part of a โ€œhybrid criminal stateโ€ conducting a โ€œpredatory incursionโ€ into the United States.

Blanche strongly condemned the leak, calling it a politically motivated effort by elements of the โ€œDeep Stateโ€ to derail Trumpโ€™s crackdown on Tren de Araguaโ€™s criminal activities in the United States and his efforts to quickly deport dangerous terrorists.

โ€œWe will not tolerate politically motivated efforts by the Deep State to undercut President Trumpโ€™s agenda by leaking false information onto the pages of their allies at the New York Times,โ€ Blanche said

โ€œThe Alien Enemies Proclamation is supported by fact, law, and common sense, which we will establish in court and then expel the TDA [Tren de Aragua] terrorists from this country.โ€

Byย Tom Ozimek

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