DOJ lawyers hunt for pretext to raid Cuba — amid fears of 'dramatic' breach of protocol

Trump administration prosecutors in Miami are hunting for a pretext to charge government officials in Cuba with U.S. crimes, reported MS NOW's Carol Leonnig and Jake Traylor — a development that comes shortly after Trump suggested that there could soon be leadership changes in the Communist nation.

This working group has sparked fear among experts, as such an operation would be a "dramatic" breach of federal prosecution standards.

"A Justice Department-led effort to seek to prosecute leaders of the communist nation on the nation’s southern flank has been ongoing since mid-February, which could help propel a change in Cuba’s leadership, the people told MS NOW," said the report. "The U.S. attorney in Miami, Jason Reding Quinones, created the multi-agency working group, emphasizing internally that it had an urgent goal: find and pursue leaders of the Cuban government or Communist Party for prosecutable violations of federal law."

The Trump administration has grown more bold in recent months about such operations; its raid into Venezuela captured longtime authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, and Trump is now launching joint strikes with Israel against Iran, which killed that country's Supreme Leader.

But there's a big difference with what is reportedly going on in Cuba.

"Law enforcement sources said they fear this approach marks a dramatic break from the Justice Department’s standards for prosecuting crimes, which have long required that federal investigators have some evidence or intelligence to suspect a specific crime has occurred before opening an investigation," said the report. "In the past, federal prosecutors or FBI agents have launched similar multi-agency working groups when they have information suggesting a pattern of criminal activity, and want to broaden their effort to determine the specific people responsible, former prosecutors told MS NOW."

Former federal financial fraud prosecutor Chris Mattei said the timing is suspect: “We don’t know whether there is information within the U.S. Attorney’s office to show there is urgency — and whether there is a legitimate law enforcement reason or some other unusual objective of the administration, like regime change. A working group might be speedily set up to address an urgent threat — but that’s not typical.”