Nicolas Maduro Hires Assange Lawyer For Criminal Defense

Ousted Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro has hired prominent criminal defense lawyer Barry Pollack, who long represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as his counsel in Manhattan criminal proceedings.

Pollack, a veteran Washington trial lawyer, filed a notice of appearance Monday as Maduro’s attorney in the Southern District of New York narco-terrorism case, ahead of a hearing scheduled for noon.

Maduro’s wife and co-defendant, Cilia Flores, will be represented by a veteran Houston federal prosecutor, Mark Donnelly, who filed an initial appearance as well.

By turning to Pollack, of the boutique firm Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, the captured Venezuelan leader has brought in a lawyer experienced in defending another internationally high-profile and complex US prosecution. Pollack oversaw Assange’s 14-year legal matter culminating in a 2024 plea deal for leaking US national security secrets.

A superseding indictment unsealed Jan. 3 charges Maduro, his wife, and others with narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracy, as well as possession of machine guns and “destructive devices.”

As the couple face a Manhattan federal judge, Maduro’s lawyer, Pollack, will draw on decades of criminal defense litigation that led him to hold leadership roles in the bar, such as past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.

He was in the courtroom Monday as Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty.

Pollack’s other notable past clients include Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel—when he was indicted for his role in a Malaysian financial scandal—and a former Enron Corp. executive whom Pollack got acquitted on fraud charges.

Donnelly is a Spanish-speaking Houston native who was a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office from 2001 to 2009, according to his LinkedIn page. He later worked in the Justice Department between 2009 and 2022, climbing the ranks to become senior adviser to the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas, one of the busiest federal courts in the country.

A year after Donnelly started at Parker Sanchez & Donnelly, he joined a team of lawyers and investigators assembled by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023 to investigate abuse of office allegations lodged against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that led to his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate.

Donnelly specializes in white-collar criminal defense, business and real estate litigation, and qui tam actions, according to Parker Sanchez.