The Trump administration is blocking Venezuela's government from paying for the cost of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's defense against drug trafficking charges in New York, a move that potentially interferes with his constitutional right to counsel, his lawyer says.
Attorney Barry Pollack told a Manhattan federal judge in an email last week that the U.S. Treasury Department had blocked the authorization of legal fees that the government of Venezuela is required to pay for Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores under its law and custom. The email was entered into the public court record on Wednesday.
