Now that the former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is on American soil, the criminal process against him is underway.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him — conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession and conspiracy to possess machine guns — during his first hearing in a court in Manhattan, New York, on Monday.
His wife, Cilia Flores, who was also charged in the superseding indictment and captured along with her husband by American forces during an operation in the early hours of Saturday in Caracas, Venezuela, also pleaded not guilty.
The U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said in a social media post over the weekend that Maduro and Flores “will soon face the full force of American justice on American soil, in American courts”.
Now begins what could be a long legal process, with pre-trial motions, possible plea negotiations, and possibly a jury trial for the authoritarian leader who ruled Venezuela for more than a decade.
Shane Stansbury, who served as an assistant prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and prosecuted the former president of Guatemala, said the case should follow the typical path of any criminal case, with some notable exceptions. “It’s just that things might take longer, given the nature of the case, the type of evidence involved, security considerations, and so on,” said Stansbury, who is now a professor at Duke University School of Law.
Legal experts say these complications mean Maduro is unlikely to go to trial this year, even as the case against him advances. Here’s what to watch for.
Maduro’s head of state status will likely be addressed in court
One argument that Maduro’s defense team may present is that he cannot be criminally charged for his actions as head of state of Venezuela, according to two former federal prosecutors who spoke with NPR.
Court records list Barry Joel Pollack, a lawyer from Washington, D.C., as Maduro’s defense attorney. He did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment on the charges. Flores is being defended by Mark Donnelly, from Houston, who told NPR that they “expect to review and challenge the evidence presented by the government” and that there is a “long road ahead”. The U.S. stopped recognizing Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela in 2019, after his reelection in an election considered fraudulent by the U.S. and international observers. He took power in 2013, after the death of the then Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chávez. (The indictment alleges that Maduro began drug trafficking to the U.S. as early as 1999, including periods when he held other positions in the Venezuelan government.)
Still, there are precedents for the U.S. government bringing another country’s leader to trial, including the case against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in the early 1990s.
In that case, a federal appeals court rejected Noriega’s head of state immunity claim. But Adam Fels, a former U.S. assistant prosecutor who now practices private advocacy in Miami, said the issue could arise again.
“I imagine that these challenges, although they have been judicially debated before, will be debated again,” said Fels.
Other national leaders prosecuted by the Department of Justice include former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo for money laundering and former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking and pardoned by President Trump last month.
During his court appearance on Monday, Maduro presented himself as the president of Venezuela and a prisoner of war.
The arrest of the Venezuelan leader may raise another legal issue
Since Maduro was not extradited to the U.S. through a legal process but rather captured by U.S. armed forces during a surprise raid in Caracas, legal experts say this could give the defense team another opportunity to challenge the legality of the arrest.
Fels cited the recent case of Mexican cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and how he ended up in U.S. government custody.
Federal prosecutors claim that Joaquín Guzmán López, son of the former Sinaloa cartel leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, forced Zambada to board a plane, drugged him, and brought him to the U.S., where he was handed over to authorities.
“There was a challenge because there was concern about whether Mr. Zambada came to the United States of his own free will,” said Fels. “Therefore, I imagine that the possibility of litigation will also be something that Judge [Alvin K.] Hellerstein, who is the judge handling this case, will be considering.” (Zambada pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges last year.)
But this may be a difficult hurdle for Maduro’s lawyers to overcome. According to Stansbury, federal courts “generally refuse to interfere with the means of arrest”.
Some evidence may be classified as secret, which could cause delays
The complex case against Maduro may also mean that the discovery phase, the legal process in which prosecutors and the defense team share evidence, could take longer than usual. Stansbury said some evidence may come from intelligence sources or be classified as secret.
“The government may not want to use any classified information at trial, but that doesn’t mean the government doesn’t have the obligation to turn over some classified material if it’s exculpatory or otherwise discoverable under federal rules,” he said.
The Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) sets rules on how defendants can use classified evidence in court and can prolong the pre-trial process. CIPA rules were also applied in the case of Trump’s classified documents.
A plea deal is possible — but a trial is too
Although Maduro has pleaded not guilty, there is still time for federal prosecutors and the defense to reach a plea deal.
Both legal experts who spoke to NPR noted that the two machine gun possession charges, which carry long prison sentences, may lead Maduro to at least consider a deal.
Otherwise, the case will go to trial. Fels, who was one of the lead federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice’s successful case against El Chapo in 2019, said federal prosecutors would still have a lot of work to do to prepare the case for court, including the possibility of interviewing witnesses who corroborate the charges.
“There was a substantial amount of evidence in the Chapo case. I’d like to believe there is substantial evidence in this case too, given the efforts undertaken by the United States government to obtain and bring [Maduro] to justice,” said Fels.
“The question will be: how to assemble these allegations and prove them with witnesses and documents in a way that makes sense to a jury?”
Source: npr.org by Joe Hernandez