GOP pressures Biden to release evidence against Maduro ally pardoned as part of prisoner swap

MIAMI (AP) — A group of Senate Republicans on Thursday urged the Justice Department to release its investigative file on a key fixer for Venezuela’s socialist government pardoned by President Joe Biden ahead of trial on money laundering charges.

Alex Saab, 52, was released from federal prison in Miami last month as part of a prisoner swap and was immediately welcomed to Venezuela as a hero by President Nicolás Maduro. Once freed, Saab launched into a tirade against the U.S., claiming he had been tortured while awaiting extradition from Cape Verde in a bid to make him turn on Maduro.

“History should remember him as a predator of vulnerable people,” says a letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Merrick Garland by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was also signed by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the Republican vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Saab’s release in a swap for 10 American prisoners and a fugitive Pentagon contractor held in Venezuela was seen as a major concession to Maduro as the Biden administration seeks to improve relations with the OPEC nation and pave the way for freer elections.

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