Trump administration ordered DOJ prosecutors to stand down on criminal investigation into Venezuela's Delcy Rodriguez

On May 27, 2026, the Trump administration directed federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami to stand down on pursuing a criminal investigation into Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez, according to an Associated Press exclusive citing multiple sources. Rodriguez had been a Drug Enforcement Administration "priority target" since 2018, with an intelligence file describing allegations of drug trafficking, money laundering and gold smuggling; a confidential informant told the DEA in 2021 that Rodriguez used hotels on Isla Margarita "as a front to launder money."

The directive followed the capture of former president Nicolas Maduro and was intended, per AP's sourcing, to avoid upsetting the administration's efforts to stabilize Venezuela under Rodriguez's government. The Trump administration similarly slowed a parallel federal investigation into Colombian President Gustavo Petro around the same period. A Justice Department spokesperson denied that any investigation into Rodriguez existed to "shut down."

Former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin, quoted in the AP report, called it "deeply troubling" for law enforcement to be told to stand down from "a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons," adding that "the White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch." This entry is recorded under politicized-investigations and selective-non-enforcement — the suppression of an active federal criminal inquiry for foreign-policy leverage rather than law-enforcement judgment.