Captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has added Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official from former President Ronald Reagan‘s administration, to his legal team as he faces sweeping narco-terrorism and weapons charges in federal court in New York.
Fein entered an appearance on Maduro’s behalf in a court filing Tuesday, one day after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan.
At the hearing, Maduro declared himself a “decent man” and claimed he had been “kidnapped” from his home in Caracas, insisting he remains Venezuela’s legitimate president. U.S. authorities captured Maduro over the weekend and transferred him to New York to face prosecution.
Fein served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and as General Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission during the Reagan administration. He has testified before Congress more than 200 times and has long positioned himself as a civil libertarian critic of U.S. national security policy.
He previously represented Lon Snowden, the father of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and served as a senior policy adviser to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. In an interview published Tuesday by Al Jazeera, Fein sharply criticized the Trump administration’s actions toward Venezuela, calling the seizure of Venezuelan oil assets and the displacement of the country’s sovereignty “acts of war.”
Maduro was represented at Monday’s hearing by Washington defense attorney Barry Pollack, who also entered a formal appearance shortly before the proceeding.
Pollack is best known for representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and negotiating Assange’s 2024 plea deal with the Justice Department, which resulted in Assange’s immediate release after pleading guilty to a single felony count under the Espionage Act.
Pollack is a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a partner at Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. Earlier in his career, he represented Enron executive Michael Krautz, who was acquitted after a second trial, and Martin Tankleff, who successfully overturned a wrongful murder conviction.
Assange had ignited a global controversy in 2010 after WikiLeaks published classified U.S. military and diplomatic material leaked by Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Maduro, and five others included in the indictment, face four federal charges, including narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and firearms offenses. Prosecutors allege he leveraged the power of the Venezuelan government for more than 25 years to facilitate drug trafficking and terrorism for the benefit of himself and his allies.
The indictment also names Flores, Maduro’s son, the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, and two other defendants.
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Flores is represented by Houston attorney Mark E. Donnelly, a former Justice Department prosecutor and partner at Parker Sánchez & Donnelly, a boutique white-collar defense firm. Donnelly entered his appearance Monday morning following the couple’s capture during the overnight operation.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 17. A trial is not expected to begin for at least a year.
