Maduro says US won’t let him pay lawyer, tries to toss criminal charges

The U.S. government is preventing Venezuela from funding its former President Nicolás Maduro’s defense against U.S. narcoterrorism charges, Maduro said in a motion to dismiss, alleging the U.S. government is violating his civil rights and effectively denying him representation.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were snatched from their home in Venezuela by U.S. forces on Jan. 3 in a move widely condemned by legal experts as violating international law. The couple pleaded not guilty to all drug trafficking and terrorism charges on Jan. 5 in the Southern District of New York.

If his case isn’t dropped, Maduro says his attorney Barry Pollack will be forced to quit, since he isn’t being paid — forcing the Venezuelan ex-leader to be represented by a court-appointed attorney.

That, he says, would saddle U.S. taxpayers with the cost of his defense and make any verdict against him “constitutionally suspect.”

“The conduct of the United States government not only undermines Mr. Maduro’s rights but also this court’s mandate to provide a fair trial to all defendants who come before it in accordance with the protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution,” Maduro said in a dismissal filing Thursday evening.

Under Venezuelan law, the government has an obligation to pay for Maduro’s defense. Maduro’s and Flores’ counsel applied to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for a license to represent Maduro and to accept money from Venezuela to do so.

At first, the license was granted. Less than three hours later, the federal government clawed it back: “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,” Maduro’s filing says.

Maduro said he doesn’t have the money to retain an attorney on his own, so the revocation is depriving him of his constitutional right to counsel of his choice.

The move by the U.S. is “particularly unjustifiable,” Maduro said, since the Foreign Assets Control office recently has repeatedly granted licenses to people in the U.S. to conduct commercial transactions with the government of Venezuela.