Maduro’s lawyer claims the US is preventing Venezuela from paying for his defense

The sanctions against Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan government are hindering his defense in New York. His lead attorney, Barry Pollack, denounced in a letter published Wednesday that the Trump administration is preventing the Venezuelan government from paying for the legal services he is providing to the Chavista leader since his imprisonment in Brooklyn. Maduro was detained along with his wife, Cilia Flores, after being captured by U.S. Military forces during the January 3 military intervention.

In the letter, dated February 20, the lawyer argued that the Treasury Department was “interfering with Mr. Maduro’s ability to retain counsel” and his Sixth Amendment right to choose his own attorney. “The government of Venezuela has an obligation to pay Mr. Maduro’s fees,” Pollack wrote. “Mr. Maduro has a legitimate expectation that the government of Venezuela will do so.”

The letter said that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had granted Maduro’s counsel a license on January 9, but three hours later amended it. The amended license does not authorize Pollack from receiving funds from the Venezuelan government, now headed by Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president. The lawyer argues that, despite the requests submitted to the Treasury Department, the agency has not reinstated the original license, and he was therefore seeking the intervention of federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who is overseeing the case.

In recent weeks, within the framework of the oil agreements that Washington is overseeing in Caracas, the OFAC has granted licenses for U.S. Companies and individuals to conduct transactions with Venezuelan institutions without fully lifting the sanctions regime imposed on the South American country since 2019.

Maduro’s attorney would require that same exemption in order to receive payment for his services without coming under scrutiny from the Treasury. According to The New York Times, the U.S. Government may believe that Maduro has other legitimate means to pay his lawyer. In that case, the Department of Justice could ask him to provide evidence that he has no other assets and therefore needs Venezuela to cover his defense.

Pollack has more than 30 years of experience representing executives, senior officials, and organizations in sensitive investigations and high‑profile trials. He took on Maduro’s defense after the hearing in which the Venezuelan leader entered a not‑guilty plea to the narcoterrorism charges against him. At his first appearance on January 5, Maduro was assigned a public defender, and the judge asked both the prosecution and the defense to coordinate on the OFAC licensing issue to ensure that the attorneys could represent their clients properly.

Maduro’s wife is being represented by Mark E. Donnelly, who worked for 12 years at the Department of Justice. According to Pollack, his colleague Donnelly has been able to receive payments from Venezuela for his client’s legal representation.

Maduro and Flores are scheduled to appear again before federal authorities on March 26, following the postponement of the March 17 hearing due to “logistical reasons and scheduling conflicts,” as agreed upon by the prosecution and the couple’s defense team. On January 30, they were granted a consular visit from a representative of Venezuela.

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