Overview
- Nicolás Maduro, captured Saturday, is set for an initial appearance in the Southern District of New York on narcotics and related offenses.
- A newly unsealed indictment alleges Maduro and five co-defendants, including his wife Cilia Flores and his lawmaker son, facilitated thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States and labels him the de facto but illegitimate ruler of Venezuela.
- Maduro’s team is expected to challenge the case on sovereign-immunity and due-process grounds, though legal analysts cite the Noriega rulings as reasons those arguments are unlikely to prevail.
- Prosecutors may rely on a 1989 Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo by William Barr asserting presidential authority to order arrests abroad, and courts have generally upheld jurisdiction regardless of how a defendant was brought to the United States.
- The State Department does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s leader and has offered a $50 million reward for his arrest, while U.S. sanctions complicate his ability to pay American counsel without a Treasury license.