Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about U.S. intelligence undercutting Trump's claims.

A declassified National Intelligence Council memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

by the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation,

heavily undercuts claims and justifications the Trump administration is leaning on.

The memo was obtained from the National Intelligence Director's Office, and though some of it

is redacted, the key through line is that Venezuela's government doesn't control or direct

the activities of criminals in the United States. For most people, this was kind of obvious,

but it was a claim made by the Trump administration, and now there's a memo from April 7th going

against his claim.

It says, quote,

while Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate,

the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA,

and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States. TDA in this context

is the Trend de Iaragua gang. Beyond that, the memo said that Maduro's law enforcement

undertakes actions, quote, demonstrating the regime treats TDA as a threat, an uneasy mix of

cooperation and confrontation, rather than top-down directives characterizing the regime's ties

to other armed groups, and the decentralized makeup of TDA, that would make such a relationship logistically

challenging. Even the dissenting agency in the memo, the FBI, indicated their view was that

some Venezuelan officials facilitate TDA members getting to a few different countries, including the U.S.

Why does this matter? When Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, the proclamation said, quote,

TDA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States,

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