State Department cries false over WSJ report claiming US offered Venezuela’s Maduro amnesty

The State Department on Monday denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the Biden administration had offered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro amnesty in exchange for him stepping down from his 11-year reign.

"That is not true," Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during the question-and-answer portion of a press briefing Monday. "We have not made any offers to Maduro or others since this election."

Patel’s comments were in stark contrast to claims made by "three people familiar with the Biden administration deliberation[s]" regarding secret meetings held in Doha, Qatar in June and September 2023 between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

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Details following the meetings have been scarce, though reports released last year indicated that chief adviser to Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez, and the White House National Security Council’s former senior director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan González, met at least twice to discuss an array of issues on top of the alleged amnesty proposal, including sanctions relief, according to a document posted by Maduro to X. The U.S., however, has never verified this information.

The Wall Street Journal report further suggested that Maduro’s top officers facing judicial indictments over offenses relating to charges of conspiring to export cocaine to the U.S., could also see amnesty agreements.

The State Department did not return Fox News Digital’s questions regarding the Wall Street Journal report, though a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council echoed the department's claims.

"Since the July 28 election, we have not made any specific offers of