Silvercorp, the mercenary company caught Sunday in a bizarre attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government, claims to have provided security for President Trump two years ago at one of his political rallies in North Carolina.
Led by Jordan Goudreau, a former special forces soldier, the Florida-based security company, has made headlines after two of its men were, according to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, among a group of 13 “terrorists” detained by Venezuelan forces while attempting an armed incursion into the country. (Eight people were reportedly killed in the failed invasion attempt.) A photo posted to Instagram by the company is taken from what appears to be backstage at President Trump’s October 2018 political rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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“Protecting our Greatest Assets,” reads the post. A suited man wears an earpiece in the background of the rally with two other individuals. The same photo is used on the company’s main website, with the figure’s enlarged head in black and white, highlighting the security wire and earpiece on the back of his head.
One of the company’s promotional videos shows a Silvercorp employee among a security detail behind President Trump at that same Charlotte rally. In the video, Trump is seen addressing a large crowd behind a podium. Motherboard has independently confirmed that the video was taken at the same Charlotte rally by comparing people who appeared in the video uploaded by Silvercorp with press photos taken at the same rally.
The Associated Press reported that Goudreau had been introduced to Keith Schiller, President Trump’s longtime bodyguard, and accompanied him to a Miami meeting with representatives of Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó in May 2019.
In another post from November 2018, Goudreau is pictured sitting down at a Houston restaurant with several other men and a “Make America Great Again” hat beside him. President Trump held a rally in Houston on the run-up to the midterm elections in 2018. Another post from March 2019 shows Goudreau walking toward a private jet; it’s captioned with “#potussecurity” referring to the President.
Sunday, Silvercorp tweeted that a strikeforce was invading Venezuela, tagging the president:
The White House did not immediately respond to a Motherboard request for comment on its connections to Silvercorp.
Joseph Cox contributed reporting to this piece.
