A dispute erupted in Manhattan federal court over who has authority to represent former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in his drug trafficking case, days after Maduro’s arraignment on charges alleging he worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.
Defense attorney Barry Pollack, who sat with Maduro at his Monday arraignment, filed a declaration Thursday with Manhattan federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein asking that lawyer Bruce Fein be removed from the court docket as Maduro’s representative. Pollack said Maduro “does not know Mr. Fein and has not communicated with Mr. Fein, much less retained him, authorized him to enter an appearance, or otherwise hold himself out as representing Mr. Maduro.”
The representation dispute adds procedural complexity to a case already carrying significant legal and geopolitical stakes. Maduro, held at a federal jail in Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, to charges alleging he facilitated drug cartel cocaine shipments into the United States. U.S. special forces seized Maduro and Flores from their home in Caracas two days before the arraignment, according to the Associated Press.
Competing Claims Over Who Retained Fein
Fein, who served as an associate deputy U.S. attorney general during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, told the judge that “individuals credibly situated” within Maduro’s inner circle or family had sought out his assistance to help Maduro navigate what Fein described as the “extraordinary, startling, and viperlike circumstances” of his capture and criminal case.
In a letter to Hellerstein, Fein wrote that he had no telephone, video or other direct contact with Maduro, who is being held at a federal jail in Brooklyn. Fein wrote, however, that Maduro “had expressed a desire” for his “assistance in this matter.”
Pollack said he spoke to Maduro by phone Thursday and confirmed directly that Maduro does not know Fein. Pollack said in a written declaration to Hellerstein that he had attempted to contact Fein by telephone and email to ask on what basis Fein was seeking to enter his appearance and what authorization he had to do so. “He has not responded,” Pollack said.
Pollack said Maduro authorized him to ask Hellerstein to modify the court docket so that it no longer showed Fein as representing Maduro.
Fein Asks Judge to Question Maduro Directly
In his response Friday, Fein told the judge he does not dispute or question the accuracy of Pollack’s assertions. Instead, Fein proposed that Hellerstein question Maduro in private to “definitively ascertain President Maduro’s representation wishes,” including whether he wants to be represented by Pollack, Fein or both.
Fein wrote that he was asked by the judge on Friday to let Maduro settle the dispute.
“Maduro was apprehended under extraordinary, startling, and viperlike circumstances, including deprivation of liberty, custodial restrictions on communications, and immediate immersion in a foreign criminal process in a foreign tongue, fraught with the potential for misunderstandings or miscommunications,” Fein wrote.
Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty Monday to the federal narcotics charges. Pollack was the only lawyer representing Maduro at that proceeding.