A declassified memorandum drafted by the U.S. intelligence agency contradicts President Donald Trump, whose argument that the Venezuelan government controls the Tren de Aragua gang, the argument he used to deport immigrants to the El Salvador prison.

The National Intelligence Commission memorandum states that Nicolás Maduro's Venezuelan regime allows criminal gangs to operate on its territory, but rather is planning Tren de Aragua's actions in the United States.

"While Venezuela's loose environment allows TDA to operate, the Maduro regime may not have a policy of working with TDA, nor bringing the TDA movement into the United States and operations," the memo said on April 7.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has issued a memorandum in response to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act of the Press Freedom Foundation of the nonprofit. The foundation provides copies to NBC News. Titled "Venezuela: Checking the regime links with Tren de Aragua", the decrypted version of the five-page memorandum includes some black appearances and paragraphs.

The New York Times first reported on the Memorandum Monday.

After Trump declared Tren de Aragua as an invading force, he invoked the Foreign Enemy Act of 1798. This law is only used on the battlefield.

He and government officials said the Trend Alagua gang operated under the guidance and guidance of the Venezuelan regime.

"The TDA is taking hostile action and conducting irregular wars directly and against U.S. territory on the Maduro regime in Venezuela," Trump wrote in an announcement to announce the bill.

The law has been used to immediately deport Venezuelans and other immigrants to prisons in El Salvador. Prisons are notorious for their cruel and ill-treatment conditions.

The intelligence boundary said that it is based on the judgment of Tren de Aragua, “The Venezuelan law enforcement action shows that the regime sees TDA as a threat; the uneasiness of cooperation and confrontation rather than the directive that makes the regime connect with other ordnance groups to make the TDA connected and make the TDA constituting and the composition of such a relationship;

The memorandum notes that FBI analysts have slightly different views, even if they are roughly consistent with other intelligence agencies’ assessments. FBI analysts "evaluate" Some Venezuelan government officials have promoted the migration of TDA members from Venezuela to the United States and used the members as agents in Chile, Colombia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States to promote what they believe is the goal of the Maduro regime, allowing the government to undermine the government and undermine the public safety of these countries," said the government.

The Washington Post first reported the existence of the memorandum, after the Times reported that intelligence raised questions about the cartel and its ties to the Venezuelan government.

The Trump administration has severely criticized the media for its misleading coverage of the issue and announced leak investigations related to job and time reports. The Justice Department has cited media reports as a driving force for restrictions on leak investigations.

Lauren Harper of the Press Freedom Foundation said the memorandum undermines the government's claim that the information in the document could pose a danger to public safety.

"The Trump administration claims that the leak of this memorandum is so dangerous that criminal investigations need to be opened and new rules surrounding media leaks are put in place," Harper said in an email. "We want to see if this is true - or whether the Justice Department is undermining journalists' protections to help hide documents that the public has obvious rights."

"The memorandum "not only shows that the Maduro regime does not direct the Venezuelan gang Tren de Alaguya, but also shows that the Ministry of Justice's new media rules are an excuse for journalists," she said.

But, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, said the news media is "distorting" and "manipulating" intelligence assessments about foreign criminal gangs operating in the United States "undermining the president's agenda to ensure the security of the American people." ”

"Illegal immigration offenders have raped, tortured and murdered Americans, and the publicity media is still serving as defenses for them," she said in an email sent by a spokesperson.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence later issued a statement saying: "Full support the assessment of the foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua, acting with the support of the Maduro regime, was arrested, detained and evacuated as an alien enemy of the United States."

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing in March, Gabbard told lawmakers about conflicting findings about the relationship between the gang and the regime. “There are different assessments from different intelligence community elements,” she said.

Ranking of the Intelligence Committee, Democrats of Connecticut, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat in Texas, welcomed the release of the memo and said they wrote a letter to Gabbard last month asking her to announce the lawsuit.

Legislators argued that the declassified assessment strengthened a federal judge's ruling last week that the government was "illegal" against the Alien Enemy Act related to the Tren de Alagua gang.

The Democratic MP also wrote: "Director Gabbard should explain why her public description of this intelligence did not correspond to the IC's discovery."

They added: "The most basic responsibility of the Director of National Intelligence is to speak the truth to power and the American people."

When asked about the memorandum, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an email that he “full support President Trump’s relentless efforts to protect Americans from cruel mobs who have been violated our homeland and intimidated the American people.”

Cotton added that he expects journalists to “ask his Democratic friends why they continue to defend foreigners who are trying to hurt their voters.”

Ranking of Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia said the memorandum shows that the Maduro regime is not a sponsor of Tren de Aragua.

"It is very worrying to see the non-party intelligence community assessment of DNI's false statements," he said in a statement. "It is even more shocking to see this happening in an effort to get Donald Trump to deport immigrants without due process."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a column on the Fox News website that it would be irrelevant to act on the orders of the Maduro regime, believing that the regime "promoted its growth."

“Whether it is the order of the Venezuelan leader, the TDA only murders, smuggling drugs and illegal immigration of traffickers on our borders, or the focus of self-enhanced freelancers,” he wrote. “It represents a hostile foreign government killing, which has promoted its growth and has encouraged its invasion of the United States to promote its interests.”

correct (May 6, 2025, 7 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of the ranking Democrats in the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was Mark Warner, not Warren.