As Biden Admin heaps sanctions relief on Venezuela, Republican senators seek to reveal Saab’s crimes
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release information from its investigation of Alex Saab, an alleged money launderer and close ally of Venezuelan narco-terrorist Nicolás Maduro. Their letter comes a month after the Biden Administration pardoned Saab in a prisoner swap with Venezuela, marking another substantial concession to the socialist regime.
In a letter sent today to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the senators requested the DOJ provide them with the investigative file against Saab and the confessions he made while in U.S. custody. The senators’ push for transparency aligns with their respective leadership on the caucus, committees, and subcommittee that oversee international narcotics control, foreign relations and the Western Hemisphere, as well as intelligence.
“U.S. court filings disclose that Saab confessed to a serious criminal conduct, and his many victims deserve to know the extent of his crimes. History should remember him as a predator of vulnerable people within Venezuela and throughout the world,” the senators wrote. “The United States government closed the case against Alex Saab when President Biden pardoned his crimes. There is no basis for withholding the evidence against Saab from the American public.”
A copy of the letter can be found here and below:
Dear Attorney General Garland,
In December, President Biden granted Alex Saab clemency from United States charges, released him from custody, and returned him to his co-conspirators in Venezuela.1 Given the serious charges in his indictment, we ask that you provide the investigative file against Mr. Saab and his confessions no later than February 7, 2024.
The State Department has described Saab as “one of the two most important money [men] in the Maduro government,” and “the middle man” between Nicolas Maduro’s narco-terrorist regime and Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism.2 In March 2020, Saab brokered deals between Iran and Maduro,3 and was arguably involved “in a mission designed to violate UN sanctions on Iran.”4
Saab used a sophisticated network of shell companies to launder “hundreds of millions of dollars in corruption proceeds around the world.”5 He was so indispensable to his criminal network that the United States worried Iranian and Venezuelan operatives would orchestrate his escape from custody.6
Saab remains an unrepentant criminal who, within days of his release from U.S. custody, launched a propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting our country and American judiciary and law enforcement professionals.
U.S. court filings disclose that Saab confessed to a serious criminal conduct, and his many victims deserve to know the extent of his crimes. History should remember him as a predator of vulnerable people within Venezuela and throughout the world. The United States government closed the case against Alex Saab when President Biden pardoned his crimes. There is no basis for withholding the evidence against Saab from the American public.7
Given this, we request that you provide the investigative file against Mr. Saab and his confessions no later than February 7, 2024.
Sincerely,
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