Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro will stand trial June 1, 2027
Federal prosecutors accuse Maduro and his wife of conspiring with drug cartels.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores will stand trial on June 1, 2027, a federal judge in New York decided Wednesday.
Maduro, in beige jail garb, entered the courtroom without shackles, greeting spectators with "good morning" in English and waving at one of the sketch artists as he took his seat at the defense table.
Maduro appeared at ease with his attorneys, shaking each of their hands and smiling as he conferred.
Maduro took notes during the brief hearing and Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted him a few minutes to huddle with his lawyers after it concluded.
Maduro has pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. Defense attorney Barry Pollack signaled Wednesday that he would challenge the government’s indictment based on an argument that Maduro is immune from prosecution because he was the leader of a sovereign nation.
Federal prosecutors accuse Maduro and Flores of conspiring with drug cartels to facilitate the flow of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S.
When Maduro and Flores last appeared in court in March, Maduro's lawyers unsuccessfully pushed to have the case thrown out because the Treasury Department had blocked the Venezuelan government from paying his defense attorneys.
Defense lawyers have since withdrawn their motion to dismiss the case after the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in April began allowing Maduro and Flores to receive money from Venezuela to pay for their attorneys.
In January, the U.S. carried out a military operation in Venezuela to capture and bring Maduro and his wife to the U.S. to face charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
"I am innocent," Maduro told the court during his arraignment in January. "I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country."
While Maduro and Flores have awaited trial in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn, their home country has been grappling with a humanitarian disaster following a pair of powerful back-to-back earthquakes in June, killing at least 5,278 people.
The Trump administration has rapidly warmed up its ties with Venezuela under acting President Delcy Rodríguez, restoring diplomatic relations and loosening sanctions on the country.
Last week, President Donald Trump, in a primetime address to the nation, accused Maduro's regime of rigging Venezuela's 2020 elections using tools Trump alleged could be applied in the U.S.
The documents released by the White House contradicted those claims, concluding that the country lacks the ability "to manipulate the outcome of an election outside of Venezuela in a predictable fashion."
The federal case against Maduro does not include any allegations related to rigging elections, instead centering on claims that he conspired with traffickers to allow the flow of drugs into the U.S.
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