It’s the FBI’s most wanted film.
The Post is told that the bureau has requested some 100 hours of footage used in making the new documentary “Men of War,” after an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor viewed the movie at the Double Exposure Investigative Journalism Film Festival at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, last month.
“Men of War” tells the story of Jordan Goudreau, a former Green Beret who, in 2020, as documented in the movie, helped plot a would-be coup against Venezuela’s authoritarian Maduro regime.
“I found out that they want to subpoena all the raw footage,” Jen Gatien, who co-directed “Men of War,” told The Post of the feds. “That’s 100 hours of raw interviews that I did with Jordan and everyone else. They’re legally not entitled to it under journalistic privilege.”
In July, US marshals arrested Goudreau on charges of violating the Arms Export Control Act, claiming in an indictment that he illegally shipped firearms — allegedly to arm a militia for the supposed coup — out of the country. He denies this.
“They were there to see what Mr. Goudreau said during the filming in order to gather evidence,” Marissel Descalzo, Goudreau’s lawyer, told The Post of the feds at the film fest. “I’m sure they wanted to see if there was anything they could use against him in the trial.”
Born in Canada, Goudreau, 48, found his calling when he enlisted in the US Army in 2001. Serving as a Green Beret in Afghanistan and Iran, he specialized in missions that included frontline combat and intelligence work.
“He loved the military and it gave him purpose,” Gatien, who received exclusive access to the subjects of her doc, told The Post. “But, more than that, he’s the best at it. He is in the upper echelon of those in the military. He has three bronze stars for bravery and valor.”
But battle took a toll on his body and mind, leaving him with tinnitus and severe headaches. In 2016, Goudreau received a medical discharge. According to Gatien, he fought the decision, to no avail.
“He went through a major depression,” said Gatien of the time following his discharge. “Jordan got on his motorcycle and rode across the country. He felt listless and despondent. Like he says in the movie, he had been trained to do something really well and, all of a sudden, he could no longer do that thing.”
By 2018, Goudreau had settled in Florida and formed a security company called Silvercorp USA. That same year, he provided security for a Donald Trump rally in Charlotte, NC. In 2019, Goudreau was hired to guard the Venezuelan pop star LeLe Pons at Venezuela Aid Live, in Cucuta, Colombia, 187 miles from the Venezuelan border.
The benefit concert raised money for Venezuelans and supported Juan Guaido, a political rival who had challenged the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency.
Soon after returning to the US, Goudreau, as he told Gatien, “was contacted by Keith Schiller [formerly President Donald Trump’s director of Oval Office operations], who was working with wealthy Venezuelans in America … to install Guaido in power.”
As Gatien was told, “They met at a WeWork in Florida and began figuring out how to remove Maduro from power.”
In “Men of War,” Schiller claims the meeting was to discuss humanitarian aid for Venezuela.
The US State Department has accused the Maduro regime of arbitrary killings of its citizens and threats of violence against journalists. In March 2020, the US Department of Justice charged Maduro with narco-terrorism, corruption, and drug trafficking.
America has a $15 million bounty on the head of the Venezuelan strongman, who, according to US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, “expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and well-being of our nation.”
The plan to oust Maduro was hatched between Goudreau and Guaido supporters: Bring in a 300-man militia — recruited by Cliver Alcalá, a former Venezuelan military leader — that would camp out in safe houses and spend a year secretly converting the Venezuelan military to turn on Maduro.
At that point, per the scheme, Maduro would be captured and sent to America to stand trial on his narcotics charges. “Similar to what was done with Manuel Noriega,” Gatien said.
Enticed by ideology, desire for a mission, and the promise of money (which he never received), Goudreau spent months bouncing between his home in Florida and the jungles of Colombia, where he trained a group that included Venezuelan natives as well as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, a pair of former Green Berets he’d served with.
Through it all, Goudreau truly believed he had the blessing of the US government. “Jordan,” said Gatien, “was exploring every opportunity to remove a dictator and bring democracy.”
The plan was for the militia to travel from Colombia to Venezuela by boat in late March, settle into safe houses, and begin a year-long campaign of connecting with soldiers on military bases who would be sympathetic to their cause.
Goudreau planned to travel from Florida to Venezuela to join the militia members he had helped train. He and a friend left in early March, expecting to spend two weeks traveling by boat.
“That was when everything started going sideways,” said Gatien. “Alcalá was arrested by the DEA on narcotics charges and arms were seized in Colombia” — the ones Goudreau would later be charged for shipping illegally. “At that point, his mission changed from launching the coup to pulling the [Denman and Berry] out of harm’s way.”
Then, 80 miles off the coast of Colombia, the fan belt on Goudreau’s boat snapped while he was en route to Colombia.
According to Gatien, Goudreau and his pal were stranded at sea for two days. Finally, after an SOS call to the Curacao Coast Guard, a freighter bound for Louisiana picked them up. The men reached the Bayou State in early April; US Coast Guard agents, concerned they might be shipping narcotics, awaited.
Both men were briefly interviewed and quickly cut loose.
Goudreau returned to Florida and warned the former Green Berets, still in Colombia, about things having gone awry.
But getting them out of the Colombian jungle and back to the US suddenly proved impossible when Gatien said, Covid shut down much of the word. Instead, the decision was made to travel by boat from Colombia to Venezuela and retreat to the safe houses.
Unbeknownst to Goudreau’s militia, their plans had been leaked to the Maduro government — and armed Venezuelan intelligence officers awaited the arrival of the first boat. Six members of the dissident crew were killed. When a second boat arrived, 30 of the men, including the two former Green Berets, were arrested.
The Green Berets would go on to spend three years in prison before the US government negotiated their release.
Gatien was intrigued by the story and reached out to Goudreau about the possibility of making a documentary.
“I remember thinking he was out of central casting [and wondering,] ‘Is this guy an actor playing an action hero? Or is he the real deal?’” she said.
Hearing Goudreau tell his story, she became convinced of the latter. She spent the next three years filming him in Florida, Mexico, Texas, Montana, Canada and California.
On July 30 of this year, while Gatien was in the process of editing the movie, Goudreau was arrested in Lower Manhattan.
“Three armored vehicles, windows all blacked out, were waiting for him. Plain-clothed US marshals jumped out, grabbed him, and threw him into one of the vehicles. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Gatien, who watched it all go down.
Goudreau was whisked to the Metropolitan Detention Center and put in solitary confinement after being hit with the charge of exporting unlicensed weapons.
Gatien admits she considered washing her hands off her subject.
“But I just couldn’t do it,” she said. “I’d been following this guy for five years. How do I say, ‘Hey, it’s been real. Thanks for letting me have the exclusive to your story.’ Then I’m going to attend film festival premieres, wear my Parada gown, and clink Champagne glasses while he’s at MDC? No.”
Instead, she put up real estate as collateral to secure his $2 million bail. “It’s something,” she said, “that I would do for any documentary subject of mine.”
He is currently under house arrest in Florida.
The film, which was financed by Neon, has screened six times. When it played in DC, Gatien had no idea the FBI would be in the audience. Two weeks later, they made clear, via phone call, that they wanted all the raw footage. A subpoena has not been served as of this time.
“Documentarians and journalists can’t be used to do the government’s homework,” said Gatien. “I don’t think it’s right, morally or legally, for me to turn over my footage of every person that talked to me. I don’t want the government to cherry-pick what they want to use against the subject of the film. I am not an agent for the DOJ, they have endless resources and can do their own work. My five years of research was never to bolster their case. All of this is covered by journalistic privilege and that includes documentaries. This is the exact kind of weaponizing of the justice system that President Trump has been speaking out against.”
According to First Amendment lawyer Mark Rasch, the FBI has no rights to Gatien’s footage.
“A journalist should never be put in a position where they become an agent of the Department of Justice in prosecuting their sources,” Rasch told The Post. “It is rare for the government to seek this type of information from a journalist.”
Gatien has no regrets about putting her own money up to defend Goudreau: “He served the United States with valor. This is not a guy who needs to be incarcerated for 30 years.”
And Goudreau is grateful for the support.
“The footage is like a diary. There were things I said that were never meant to reach the public,” he said. “I fought for the constitution for two decades in two wars so that Americans could have protections for their speech and private thoughts. It is clear to me now that the Constitution can be disregarded when the CIA, FBI, and federal prosecutors just want to win.”
