Lawyers for indicted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asked a U.S. judge Thursday to dismiss the narco-terrorism case against him, accusing the Trump administration of interfering with his ability to fund his defense.
The move by Maduro attorney Barry J. Pollack marks the first skirmish in what could be a long legal war over when and under what conditions the former Venezuelan leader can be brought to trial in U.S. court.
In a court filing, Pollack said the U.S. Treasury Department had initially granted permission for him to accept payment from the Venezuelan government to represent Maduro in court, despite sanctions barring U.S. residents from doing business with the regime.
However, after granting that concession, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control abruptly reversed course a few hours later, Pollack said, leaving Maduro without access to funds to pay a lawyer.
Pollack maintained that the government’s move flies in the face of recent exceptions the OFAC has made for others seeking to engage in commercial dealings with the Venezuelan government. He noted several recent decisions to allow oil companies to do business with Venezuela.
The government has also allowed the lawyers for Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro, who is a co-defendant, to accept money from Venezuela, Pollack told the court.
Venezuelan law, he said, requires that nation’s government to fund Maduro’s criminal defense.
“Mr. Maduro, who lacks his own funds to retain counsel, is being deprived of his constitutional right to counsel of his choice,” Pollack said in the motion filed in federal court in Manhattan. He urged U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to dismiss the case.
The Constitution guarantees Maduro a lawyer. If he were cut off from all sources of money, the court potentially would have to appoint an attorney to represent him who would be paid by U.S. taxpayers.
It remained unclear Thursday what brought on the OFAC decision. The agency did not immediately return requests for comment and has not yet filed a response to Pollack’s claims in court.
U.S. officials may believe that Maduro has other assets available to fund his defense and could request a detailed review of his assets, should he now request a court-appointed attorney.
U.S. military forces seized Maduro and Flores from their compound in Caracas, Venezuela, during an audacious January raid. They were brought to Manhattan to face narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges laid out in an indictment the Justice Department secured earlier this year.
Both have pleaded not guilty and remain in a Brooklyn detention center.
The question of who will pay Maduro’s defense fees is only the latest unusual twist surrounding who will represent him.
Soon after Pollack first entered his appearance in the case, another attorney — Bruce Fein — told the court that he would also be representing the deposed Venezuelan leader.
After Pollack objected, Fein maintained that he had been contacted by members of Maduro’s inner circle who had retained him out of concern that he was not receiving adequate legal representation.
Hellerstein has since removed Fein from the case.
The post U.S. blocking Maduro from money to pay for his defense, lawyers say appeared first on Washington Post.
