Nicolas Maduro, the alleged head of the Cartel de Los Soles, and the former dictator of Venezuela, until he was captured and brought to trial in New York City, is complaining that he and his wife are too poor to pay their lawyer.
They have asked U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the charges, saying their inability to rely on Venezuelan public funds is interfering with their right to have a lawyer of their choosing under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Their lawyers have said Maduro and Flores cannot afford to pay their defense fees on their own.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has said he wants to withdraw from the case if Hellerstein doesn’t dismiss the charges and the Venezuelan government cannot pay his fees. It was unclear how much Pollack is charging Maduro for his services. Pollack did not respond to a request for comment.Maduro and his wife, who will also be in court, say that under Venezuelan law and custom, the government pays the expenses of the president and first lady.
The idea that the Constitution applies to a foreign dictator is already a joke, but Maduro is insisting on a parallel defense of utilizing the Constitution and the law of his own country.
Are we really supposed to accept this kind of legal musical chairs gambit? But that’s what happens when we dismantle the fundamental notion that constitutional protects are for Americans and not for our enemies.
Can Maduro not really afford to pay his lawyer? The U.S. previously seized about $700 million of assets from him, but his total assets have been estimated at $3.8 billion which means that his claims of poverty are suspect.
But we’ll still probably end up paying for his lawyers because we took him into custody instead of finishing him off, and then we gave him a civilian trial, instead of a brief military tribunal and a hanging.
