Maduro’s Lawyer Accuses Trump Admin of Unconstitutional ‘Interference’ for Blocking Venezuela from Paying His Legal Fees

Photo by: XNY/STAR MAX/IPx 2026 1/5/26

The attorney representing Nicolás Maduro filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him, accusing the Trump administration of violating the deposed Venezuelan dictator’s constitutional rights by blocking Venezuela from paying his legal fees.

In January, President Donald Trump ordered air strikes in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, leading to the capture of the Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The strikes sparked loud criticism for multiple reasons, chiefly because Trump had not sought authorization from Congress beforehand, the complicated nature of attempting to force regime change, and because of his pardon in December for Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of drug trafficking. Others have cited Maduro’s brutal oppression of his own people and how he seized power for a third term in July 2024 despite election results showing opposition leader Edmundo González had won. Maduro’s government had previously barred opposition leader María Corina Machado from running. Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; later she gave the medal to Trump.

Barry Pollack, a veteran criminal defense attorney who previously represented Julian Assange, filed the motion Thursday, reported Matt Naham at Law&Crime, Mediaite’s sister site.

In the motion, Pollack argued that Venezuelan law required the country’s government to fund Maduro’s legal defense costs, but the Trump administration had blocked the funding.

“The United States government, through the Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), initially granted a license to Mr. Maduro’s counsel of choice to accept funds from the government of Venezuela to represent Mr. Maduro,” wrote Pollack. “Unilaterally and without explanation, however, OFAC subsequently amended the license such that it now precludes the receipt of defense costs from the government of Venezuela.”

The license OFAC issued for Flores, Maduro’s wife, was allowed to stand, Pollack noted.

“As a result, Mr. Maduro, who lacks his own funds to retain counsel, is being deprived of his constitutional right to counsel of his choice,” Pollack continued, arguing that OFAC has “recently repeatedly granted licenses for U.S. persons to engage with the government of Venezuela in myriad commercial transactions,” and the Trump administration’s “interference” with Maduro’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel and due process rights were “particularly unjustifiable.”

The deprivation of such fundamental constitutional rights, wrote Pollack, meant that “[n]ot only would the Court need to appoint counsel and foist the cost of Mr. Maduro’s defense on the United States taxpayers, despite the willingness and obligation of the government of Venezuela to pay Mr. Maduro’s defense costs, but also any verdict against Mr. Maduro would be constitutionally suspect.”

“Any trial that proceeds under these circumstances will be constitutionally defective and cannot result in a verdict that will withstand later challenge,” the attorney added.

Pollack further noted that with the Trump administration unwilling to allow Venezuela to pay his client’s legal expenses, if the court did not grant the motion to dismiss, he was moving to withdraw as counsel.

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