US judge asks why Venezuela's government is barred from paying Maduro's legal fees
發佈日期: 2026-03-27 20:14
TVB News
A US judge pressed the Trump administration Thursday about its basis for barring Venezuela's government from paying former President Nicolas Maduro's legal fees in the drug trafficking case that has put him behind bars in New York.
Mike Sisak at The Associated Press said: "Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were back in a Manhattan courtroom about three months after they were seized from their homes in Caracas and brought to this very courthouse for an arraignment on drug trafficking charges. The issue at a hearing today was who's going to pay their legal bills. Maduro and Flores say they don't have enough money to foot their own defense bills. They want the Venezuelan government to pay. The US government, they say, is standing in the way. The Treasury Department, which has sanctions on Venezuela, has blocked the ability for the Venezuelan government to pay those legal fees."
The judge for the case said the rights of Maduro and Flores to defend themselves are paramount and noted that since Maduro was removed from power, the US has started to renew relations with Venezuela and is doing business with Venezuela in part because of the strain on the oil market with the ongoing war in the Middle East.
