The Trump administration is blocking Venezuela\u2019s government from paying for the cost of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s defense against drug trafficking charges in New York, a move that potentially interferes with his constitutional right to counsel, his lawyer says.<\/p>\n
Attorney Barry Pollack told a Manhattan federal judge in an email last week that the U.S. Treasury Department had blocked the authorization of legal fees that the government of Venezuela is required to pay for Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores under its law and custom. The email was entered into the public court record on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Maduro and his wife have been jailed in New York without bail since they were seized from their Venezuelan home Jan. 3 in a stealth nighttime raid by U.S. military forces. They have both pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
The stunning capture following a monthslong military buildup in the Caribbean has paved the way for the Trump administration to assert enormous influence over Maduro\u2019s replacement, his vice president and now acting President Delcy Rodriguez. Under pressure from the U.S., Rodriguez has moved swiftly to open up Venezuela\u2019s oil industry to American investment, free political prisoners and reestablish direct communications with Washington \u2014 something unseen since the first Trump administration shuttered the U.S. embassy in Caracas in 2019.<\/p>\n
In the email, Pollack said that the Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers sanctions against Venezuela, had granted permission on Jan. 9 approving the payment of legal fees by the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n
Less than three hours later, though, the Trump administration snatched back the authorization \u201cwithout explanation,\u201d though it left in place a license granting permission for Maduro\u2019s wife\u2019s lawyers to be paid, Pollack said.<\/p>\n
The dispute over Maduro\u2019s legal fees is intimately linked to U.S. foreign policy. The first Trump administration cut ties with Maduro in 2019, recognizing the then opposition head of the National Assembly as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate leader. The Biden administration hewed closely to the same policy.<\/p>\n
However, allowing Rodriguez\u2019s government to pay for the cost of Maduro\u2019s defense could complicate prosecutors\u2019 efforts in court to counter the deposed leader\u2019s argument that his capture was illegal and that as the foreign head of a state he is immune from prosecution under U.S. and international law.<\/a><\/p>\n A 25-page indictment<\/a> against Maduro accused him and others of working with drug cartels and members of the military to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine<\/a> into the U.S. Both he and his wife face life in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n As part of the purported conspiracy, Maduro and his wife allegedly ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money, according to the indictment. It said that included the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas.<\/p>\n Messages seeking comment from the Treasury Department, White House and the Justice Department were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n Pollack said he asked the Office of Foreign Assets Control on Feb. 11 to reinstate the original license and clear the way for Venezuela to meet its obligation to pay Maduro\u2019s defense costs.<\/p>\n The lawyer added that Maduro \u201ccannot otherwise afford counsel\u201d and will request help from the judge to pay for his defense.<\/p>\n Pollack said the United States was \u201cinterfering with Mr. Maduro\u2019s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Fatima Hussein in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is blocking Venezuela\u2019s government from paying for the cost of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,225252,14271,90848,6014,188167,12,22048,2822,2808,793,694,3073,3140,4227,2005,1999,3,18231,111,18598,795,192706,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,18597,800,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-491390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-barry-pollack","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-cilia-flores","12":"tag-constitutional-law","13":"tag-delcy-rodriguez","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-drug-crimes","16":"tag-fl-state-wire","17":"tag-florida","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-homicide","20":"tag-indictments","21":"tag-latin-america","22":"tag-manhattan","23":"tag-new-york","24":"tag-new-york-city","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-nicolas-maduro","27":"tag-politics","28":"tag-south-america","29":"tag-u-s-news","30":"tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-united-states-government","33":"tag-united-states-of-america","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-usa","38":"tag-venezuela","39":"tag-venezuela-government","40":"tag-washington-news","41":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}