Nicolás Maduro reappeared in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday looking leaner but legally no closer to freedom. The ousted Venezuelan leader, jailed since January and shackled at the ankles, listened as US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein refused to throw out his narco-terrorism case, while openly questioning whether US sanctions should keep Maduro from using Venezuelan state funds to pay his lawyers, ABC News reports. The pretrial hearing was the second court appearance for Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, since they were seized in a Jan. 3 US raid on Caracas. Defense lawyers argued that the inability to access state funds interfered with Maduro's right to have a lawyer of his choosing, reports Reuters.
- "The current paramount goal and need and constitutional right is the right to defense," the 92-year-old judge said. He said he wouldn't take the drastic step of dismissing the case, though he might revisit the decision if it turned out that the Treasury Department had arbitrarily blocked Maduro from receiving funds and the government then failed to comply with a court order, reports the New York Times.
Prosecutors argued Maduro has no claim to Venezuela's money, calling him an alleged looter of the country's wealth. They said allowing him to access the funds would undermine sanctions, though Hellerstein questioned whether the sanctions argument is still valid, noting that US relations with Venezuela have warmed. Maduro's attorney, Barry Pollack, said that court-appointed counsel would struggle with the "great expense" of a case unlike any other. He said it made no sense to assign public defenders to "a case where you have someone other than the US taxpayer standing ready, willing and able to fund that defense," the AP reports. Pollack, whose previous clients include Julian Assange, has said he wants to pull out of the case if the Venezuelan government can't pay him.
- "I understand that the government of Venezuela is prepared to fund my legal defense and it is my expectation that it will," Maduro said in a declaration. "I have relied on this expectation and cannot afford to pay for my own legal defense."
Outside the courthouse, rival demonstrators from the Venezuelan diaspora squared off, with pro-Maduro protesters holding signs reading "Free President Maduro," reports Reuters. The former president and his wife both pleaded not guilty in their first court appearance in January. During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, President Trump said he hoped Maduro would face more charges, ABC reports. "He emptied his prisons into our country and was a major purveyor of drugs coming into our country," Trump said. "I would imagine there are other trials coming."
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