Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro appeared in a New York City court on Thursday, seeking to have a drug charge thrown out over a dispute about paying his legal fees.<\/p>\n
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both appeared in court, their first appearance since their January arraignments. They both pleaded not guilty to narcoterrorism charges.<\/p>\n
They were captured by the United States in early January and removed from Venezuela. It came after months of continued escalation between the two countries over the flow of drugs coming into the United States. <\/p>\n
The main focus of Thursday\u2019s court appearance was focused on how Maduro\u2019s lawyers were going to be paid. <\/p>\n
The defense and prosecution argued over whether Maduro can use Venezuelan government funds for his defense fees. His attorney, Barry Pollack, argued that the U.S. is violating Maduro\u2019s constitutional rights by blocking Venezuela\u2019s government from paying for his legal battle, The Associated Press reported from the New York courtroom.<\/p>\n
Pollack argued that if Maduro gets public defenders for the upcoming trial, it would use up resources that are intended to go to individuals who can\u2019t afford their own attorneys. It doesn\u2019t make sense to have the U.S. taxpayer funding the leader\u2019s defense, he said. <\/p>\n
Prosecutor Kyle Wirshba argued that Maduro using Venezuelan money for his defense undermines the U.S. sanctions on the country, which were placed on the country because of Maduro and his wife, the AP reported.<\/p>\n
Judge Alvin Hellerstein seemed skeptical of their arguments, the AP noted. He questioned why Wirshba wanted to block Maduro from using Venezuelan funds still stands if relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have improved. <\/p>\n
The prosecutor replied that even if the countries\u2019 ties improved, the U.S. can still maintain its sanctions. <\/p>\n
Hellerstein questioned whether Maduro even has the funds to be able to pay for his defense. Wirshba said they\u2019re still investigating. It\u2019s an ongoing issue about the legal mechanics of the U.S. allowing him to use Venezuelan government funds, the AP said. <\/p>\n
By the end of Thursday\u2019s hearing, it was still undecided. However, Hellerstein seemed skeptical of the prosecution\u2019s argument. He noted that for Maduro and his wife, it is \u201cparamount\u201d that they have the right to be able to defend themselves, and that does not impact national security. Still, Hellerstein did not side with Maduro\u2019s attorney in throwing out the case altogether. <\/p>\n
The judge concluded the session and said he would rule at a later date about the matter of Maduro\u2019s funding. Another hearing date will be set and eventually the trial start date would be set, too. <\/p>\n
Trump addresses Maduro court hearing in cabinet meeting<\/p>\n
Maduro was captured in an overnight U.S. military operation in January. President Donald Trump attributed destabilization in the hemisphere to Maduro working with foreign powers, including Iran. <\/p>\n
Trump said Maduro was a \u201ckingpin of a vast criminal network\u201d that was responsible for trafficking in \u201ccolossal amounts\u201d of drugs into the U.S. <\/p>\n
Leading up to Maduro\u2019s capture, the U.S. had been targeting boats off Venezuela\u2019s coast, conducting strikes as part of the effort to stop fentanyl from entering the country. <\/p>\n
The capture was conducted by FBI agents and Trump proudly celebrated that not one U.S. life was lost in the operation. At least 80 people were killed in the U.S. operation. Cuban state media confirmed that at least 32 Cubans were among the dead, which has led to heightened tensions between the Caribbean country and the U.S. in the months since. <\/p>\n
During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump shared that more charges could be coming for Maduro. Maduro was \u201ca major purveyor of drugs coming into our country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s now been captured, and I guess, being given a fair trial. But I would imagine there are other trials coming, because they have just \u2014 they\u2019ve really sued him just on a fraction of the kind.of things that he\u2019s done,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cOther cases are going to be broad, as you probably know.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro appeared in a New York City court on Thursday, seeking to have a drug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,17318],"class_list":["post-176725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news-feed-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}