US eases sanctions so Venezuela can pay Maduro's lawyers

The United States has agreed to modify its sanctions on Venezuela to allow the South American country's government to pay Nicolás Maduro's defense lawyer, a court filing showed on Friday. The move backs off a restriction that had threatened to derail the drug trafficking case against the ousted Venezuelan president, who was captured from his home in Caracas by U.S. special forces on January 3 and brought to New York to face criminal charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, have pleaded not guilty and are jailed in Brooklyn pending trial. Neither can afford lawyers on their own, and the Venezuelan government is prepared to pay their fees, according to their lawyers. Maduro's attorney Barry Pollack had asked Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the case because sanctions were preventing the Venezuelan government from paying legal fees, arguing this violated Maduro's constitutional right to counsel of his choice. All criminal defendants in the U.S. have constitutional rights regardless of citizenship. During a March 26 hearing, Hellerstein said he did not intend to dismiss the case but appeared skeptical that blocking the payments was justified, noting that the U.S. had relaxed sanctions on Venezuela since Maduro's ouster. Prosecutor Kyle Wirshba argued that the sanctions were based on legitimate national security and foreign policy interests and that Hellerstein could not order the Treasury Department to modify sanctions because foreign policy falls under the executive branch. However, Hellerstein, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, countered that Maduro and Flores no longer present a national security threat. "The right that's implicated, paramount over other rights, is the right to constitutional counsel," he said. During his first term, President Donald Trump ramped up sanctions on Venezuela over allegations that Maduro's government was corrupt and undermining democratic institutions, calling his 2018 reelection fraudulent. Maduro has dismissed those accusations, along with allegations of drug trafficking, as pretextual justifications for what he called a U.S. desire to seize control of the OPEC nation's vast oil reserves. Relations between Caracas and Washington have improved since Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice president, began leading Venezuela on an interim basis.