Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Can Maduro’s Defense Team Pull Off The Unthinkable?

[Screenshot/X/@RapidResponse47]

Even the best legal defenses are unlikely to keep ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro out of federal prison.

While Maduro is expected to assert immunity as a foreign leader and argue his arrest violates international law, federal courts probably won’t take either claim very seriously, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Expect in the coming weeks and months that Maduro’s high profile defense counsel will make a flurry of arguments on why his extraction, detention, and prosecution on domestic narcotics charges is illegitimate as a matter of international and constitutional law,” former federal prosecutor Joseph Moreno told the DCNF. “While they may grab him headlines, none of them are likely to succeed.”

Maduro plead not guilty on Monday, stating in court he was “kidnapped,” a “prisoner of war” and “still the president” of Venezuela. He was indicted on four counts for narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons charges.

President Donald Trump announced early Jan. 3 that the United States “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and captured Maduro, as well as his wife.

Maduro’s defense attorney is Barry Pollack, a nationally recognized trial lawyer best known for representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Pollack did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Another attorney, Bruce Fein, also filed a notice suggesting he would represent Maduro, but Pollack told the judge Fein was not authorized to do so. Fein responded Maduro’s “inner circle” indicated his assistance was wanted and asked the judge to directly inquire about Maduro’s wishes regarding representation.

A defense based on alleged international law violations could fall apart due to a legal principle known as the Ker-Frisbie doctrine, which holds that defendants can be prosecuted in United States courts no matter how they were brought into the country, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the DCNF.

In United States v. Alvarez-Machain, a citizen of Mexico was kidnapped from his home and flown to Texas, where he was arrested for “his participation in the kidnaping and murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and the agent’s pilot.” The Supreme Court held in the 1992 case that “forcible abduction does not prohibit his trial in a United States court for violations of this country’s criminal laws.”

“Following his seizure by U.S. military forces in 1989, former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega made many of the same arguments Maduro is expected to raise,” Moreno told the DCNF. “Noriega sought to have his charges thrown out on the grounds that as a foreign leader he was immune from criminal prosecution. Unfortunately for him, none of his arguments gained traction and he was ultimately tried, convicted, and imprisoned like any other defendant found guilty on serious felony charges.”

Meanwhile, courts “are loathe to weigh in on matters of foreign policy, which means they are not likely to consider Maduro’s legitimacy as the leader of Venezuela,” Moreno told the DCNF.

Deciding who is recognized as legitimate head of state is a “purely political” decision, Rahmani said.

Neither the Trump administration nor the Biden administration recognized Maduro as the president of Venezuela. Over 50 countries have refused to recognize Maduro since 2019, when “the National Assembly of Venezuela invoked the Venezuelan constitution and declared that Maduro had usurped power and was not the president of Venezuela,” according to the State Department.

Potential Key Witness

Maduro could also offer factual defenses against his alleged role in drug trafficking. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, however, would not have signed off on the initial indictment in 2020 unless it was “bulletproof,” Rahmani said.

The indictment alleges Maduro — “like former President Chavez before him–participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their partner drug traffickers.”

“The profits of that illegal activity flow to corrupt rank-and-file civilian, military, and intelligence officials, who operate in a patronage system run by those at the top-referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a reference to the sun insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials,” the indictment signed by U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton states.

Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, was also charged with cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Former Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal, also known as “El Pollo” or “The Chicken,” could be a key witness against Maduro. Carvajal plead guilty in June to a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, narco-terrorism and weapons charges.

In court, Maduro told the court, “I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country.” I am not sure which assertion is more challengeable. However, over 50 countries would contest the latter claim of being the head of anything other than a criminal enterprise…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 5, 2026

Carvajal wrote in a December letter addressed to “Mr. President Trump and The People of the United States” that he wanted to “atone by telling the full truth so that the United States can protect itself from the dangers I witnessed for so many years.”

“I personally witnessed how Hugo Chavez’s government became a criminal organization that is now run by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other senior regime officials,” he wrote in the letter published by The Dallas Express.

“The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns is to weaponize drugs against the United States,” Carvajal continued. “The drugs that reached your cities through new routes were not accidents of corruption nor just the work of independent traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.”

Trump’s Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles as “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in July 2025. In November, the State Department announced the cartel would be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

“[T]he Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote.

‘Wild Card’ Judge?

Judge Alvin Hellerstein, the 92-year-old Clinton-appointed judge overseeing Maduro’s case, is a bit of a “wild card” at his age, Rahmani acknowledged. Even if Hellerstein entertains one of the defense’s motions to dismiss, however, he said the Second Circuit and Supreme Court are unlikely to toss the case on appeal.

Hellerstein is “old-school and does things his own way and doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks about him,” one former federal prosecutor told Politico.

The judge ruled against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang in May. He earlier declined to move Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against President Donald Trump to federal court, where Trump sought to challenge his 2024 conviction.

“[Prosecutors] have to have the evidence lined up before you go into another country, extract the leader, and put him on trial,” Rahmani said. “I would be shocked if they don’t have everything lined up for a guilty verdict.”

Maduro’s next scheduled court appearance is in March 2026.

While Hellerstein “may raise eyebrows both in terms of the judge’s advanced age and perceived hostility to President Trump’s past efforts to have his own case moved from state to federal court,” juries in New York “are long accustomed to hearing and deciding on high-profile drug, organized crime, and white collar cases and are unlikely to give a defendant a pass even in these highly polarized times,” Moreno said.

“My prediction is that Maduro will have a long, hard slog ahead of him while remaining a guest of our federal prison system,” he told the DCNF.