Trump administration opposes Maduro’s request to dismiss drug trafficking case
The Trump administration on Friday opposed a request by former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to dismiss their U.S. criminal case.
Maduro and Flores asked the court last month to dismiss the case, arguing that the government had improperly blocked them from using Venezuelan government funds to pay for their defense.
In a court filing, the Trump administration argued that Maduro and his wife remained free to use their personal funds, including jointly held funds, to pay their legal fees, but not money controlled by a separately sanctioned Venezuelan government entity.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers U.S. sanctions against foreign entities, “granted defendants an exception to those sanctions: authorization to use their personal (and joint) funds to pay their attorneys’ fees,” the government wrote. “OFAC, however, denied defendants’ request for an additional exception: allowing them to pay their legal fees from a slush fund controlled by a sanctioned government.”
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in a court filing last month that OFAC approved the licenses requested by Maduro and Flores in January. The licenses were needed to authorize fund transfers due to sanctions against Venezuela.
But the government argued that OFAC approved the broader authorization through an administrative error and then changed the licenses.
Lawyers for Maduro and Flores did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Maduro and Flores were captured in a U.S. military operation and taken to the United States to face criminal charges. Both men were charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. Maduro faces an additional federal charge of narcoterrorist conspiracy.
The indictment against Maduro and his alleged co-conspirators says they “collaborated for decades with some of the world’s most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narcoterrorists, and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region, to distribute tons of cocaine into the United States.”
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Maduro is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
