Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are in a Manhattan federal courtroom Thursday, where their lawyers are expected to argue that their drug trafficking indictment should be thrown out because the U.S. government is blocking their ability to pay for their defense.
Last month, Maduro and his wife moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the U.S. government improperly restricted their ability to fund their legal defense by blocking access to certain Venezuelan government-controlled funds.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have disputed the couple’s argument and have asked a judge to impose strict limits on how evidence is handled in the criminal case against them.
The Justice Department argued Maduro and his wife are permitted to use personal and jointly held funds but not money tied to sanctioned Venezuelan entities.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting in Washington accused Maduro of being a “major purveyor of drugs coming into our country," but said he would have "a fair trial."
"But I would imagine there are other trials coming," Trump added, without providing details. He also suggested the current charges Maduro is facing might be “a fraction of the kind of things that he’s done.”
In a filing submitted to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, prosecutors have also requested a restrictive protective order that would bar Maduro and his wife from sharing discovery materials with four co-defendants who remain at large.
They argued that Maduro has a history of threatening opponents and allowing such access would pose “an unacceptable risk” to witnesses and their families, could lead to the destruction of evidence and might compromise ongoing investigations.
Maduro and his wife were captured during a nighttime raid in Caracas by U.S. forces on Jan. 3 and flown to New York City, where they were arraigned two days later on charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
Both have pleaded not guilty and Maduro is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Maduro and his alleged co-conspirators, according to a federal indictment, spent decades partnering with some of the world’s most violent drug traffickers and corrupt regional officials to move large quantities of cocaine into the U.S.
