Top Trump officials briefed 100 US senators on weekend raid while defending military operation and US president
The Trump administration’s top officials arrived on Capitol Hill this morning to defend one of the most audacious military operations in recent US history: the forcible capture of a sitting head of state from his own capital.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, attorney general Pam Bondi, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, briefed all 100 US senators on Operation Absolute Resolve, the lightning raid that plucked Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from his Caracas residence and deposited him in a New York City jail cell.
The session marks the first time the full Senate has heard details of the 3 January attack, which involved US special forces from Delta Force swooping into Venezuela before dawn to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Rubio told reporters that he described a threefold process to lawmakers on Venezuela that revolved around oil: first stabilization of the country, next finding access for companies to have access to the Venezuelan market and the final phase will be “one of transition”.
