Nicolas Maduro Hires Assange Lawyer For Criminal Defense

Ousted Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro has employed distinguished legal protection lawyer Barry Pollack, who lengthy represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as his counsel in Manhattan legal proceedings.

Pollack, a veteran Washington trial lawyer, filed a discover of look Monday as Maduro’s legal professional within the Southern District of New York narco-terrorism case, forward of a listening to scheduled for midday.

Maduro’s spouse and co-defendant, Cilia Flores, shall be represented by a veteran Houston federal prosecutor, Mark Donnelly, who filed an preliminary look as nicely.

By turning to Pollack, of the boutique agency Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, the captured Venezuelan chief has introduced in a lawyer skilled in defending one other internationally high-profile and complicated US prosecution. Pollack oversaw Assange’s 14-year authorized matter culminating in a 2024 plea deal for leaking US nationwide safety secrets and techniques.

A superseding indictment unsealed Jan. 3 prices Maduro, his spouse, and others with narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracy, in addition to possession of machine weapons and “damaging units.”

Because the couple face a Manhattan federal decide, Maduro’s lawyer, Pollack, will draw on many years of legal protection litigation that led him to carry management roles within the bar, resembling previous president of the Nationwide Affiliation of Felony Protection Legal professionals and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Venture.

He was within the courtroom Monday as Maduro and Flores pleaded not responsible.

Pollack’s different notable previous purchasers embrace Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel—when he was indicted for his position in a Malaysian monetary scandal—and a former Enron Corp. government whom Pollack bought acquitted on fraud prices.

Donnelly is a Spanish-speaking Houston native who was a prosecutor for the Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace from 2001 to 2009, in response to his LinkedIn web page. He later labored within the Justice Division between 2009 and 2022, climbing the ranks to develop into senior adviser to the US legal professional for the Southern District of Texas, one of many busiest federal courts within the nation.

A yr after Donnelly began at Parker Sanchez & Donnelly, he joined a staff of legal professionals and investigators assembled by the Texas Home of Representatives in 2023 to research abuse of workplace allegations lodged in opposition to Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton (R) that led to his impeachment trial within the Texas Senate.

Donnelly makes a speciality of white-collar legal protection, enterprise and actual property litigation, and qui tam actions, in response to Parker Sanchez.