When the deposed Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro goes on trial in New York, he might be represented by an skilled lawyer who is not any stranger to complicated instances on the intersection of geopolitics and the legislation.
Maduro has tapped the companies of Barry J. Pollack, a accomplice at Harris St. Laurent & Weschler LLP, a boutique legislation agency based mostly in New York, the place the authoritarian former chief and his spouse face numerous costs, together with narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, pleaded not responsible at their first court docket look Monday, when Pollack was by the ousted president’s facet.
Pollack beforehand represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, steering the anti-secrecy activist’s authorized technique within the U.S. for greater than a decade. Pollack helped safe a 2024 plea deal that led to Assange’s launch from jail.
Assange pleaded responsible to 1 depend of violating the Espionage Act for publishing categorized navy and diplomatic paperwork. He had been accused of conspiring to unlawfully acquire and launch top-secret nationwide protection info, and federal investigators stated his leaks jeopardized nationwide safety.
Andy Birrell, the president of the Nationwide Affiliation of Prison Protection Attorneys, a gaggle that Pollack as soon as headed, informed NBC Information that his colleague’s expertise representing an internationally controversial defendant like Assange was good preparation for the Maduro case.
“There’s at all times challenges in high-profile instances, however Barry’s a veteran,” Birrell stated. “He’s completed it earlier than.”
Pollack didn’t instantly reply to an interview request for this text. In a quick trade with an NBC Information reporter after Maduro’s arraignment, Pollack stated: “I feel what President Maduro stated in court docket speaks for itself.” Maduro, talking by means of a translator in court docket, declared his innocence, claimed he was “kidnapped” and insisted he was nonetheless president of Venezuela.
In an interview with the authorized publication Lawdragon printed in early April, Pollack was requested what he discovered most fulfilling about his occupation. In his response, Pollack stated he felt lucky to have shaped a private rapport with practically each consumer he has represented.
“Usually, after I meet with a consumer, they’re dealing with what stands out as the worst disaster that they’ve ever confronted,” Pollack informed Lawdragon. “On the finish of the day, it’s now not a stranger who I’m seeing get by means of to the opposite facet of this horrible piece of their life. It’s anyone that I’ve come to know and respect.”
It was not instantly identified what led Maduro to rent Pollack, a graduate of Indiana College and Georgetown College Faculty of Legislation. (Flores is represented by a special lawyer: Mark Donnelly, a veteran Houston prosecutor.)
“He doesn’t should do something he doesn’t need to do and doesn’t really feel is the proper factor to do,” Birrell stated of Pollack. “Past that, I don’t know what his choice strategies are. No matter they’re, I feel President Maduro goes to be the beneficiary of them.”
Birrell stated Pollack is thought for being a “meticulous” and “unassuming” skilled who understands how one can clearly clarify complicated authorized ideas and persuade juries.
“He’s an individual that completely reeks credibility,” Birrell stated. “I feel that Barry’s an individual who presents as somebody who’s attempting to get on the reality and folks like that, they respect that.”
C. Melissa Owen, the president-elect of the Nationwide Affiliation of Prison Protection Attorneys, agreed with that evaluation, praising Pollack’s courtroom communication talents.
“I might say he has Ivy League mind with Midwestern sensibilities when it comes to having the ability to talk with the American public,” Owen stated.
Pollack’s authorized profession spans greater than 30 years, in response to his agency’s web site. In that point, in response to the legislation agency information Chambers USA, Pollack cultivated a status in elite authorized circles as a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials.”
Assange’s case was maybe Pollack’s most notable foray into the nationwide highlight earlier than Maduro enlisted him.
Assange and his web site claimed accountability for leaking categorized U.S. navy paperwork and movies from the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, together with video of an Apache helicopter assault in Baghdad that killed civilians. The disclosures drew broad consideration and embarrassed the U.S. authorities.
In remarks to reporters after Assange’s launch in 2024, Pollack argued that his consumer by no means ought to have been charged underneath the Espionage Act and framed the case as a take a look at of free speech rights.
“He has suffered tremendously in his struggle at no cost speech, for freedom of the press, and to make sure that the American public and the world group will get truthful and vital newsworthy info,” Pollack stated.
Pollack beforehand gained an entire acquittal for Michael Krautz, a former Enron accountant who confronted legal fraud costs. The not responsible verdict for Krautz was hailed by Pollack’s agency as one of many few acquittals stemming from the varied prosecutions that adopted the collapse of Enron, probably the most spectacular enterprise sagas of the early 2000s.
He additionally defended Martin Tankleff, a New York man who served 17 years in jail after having been wrongfully convicted of killing his dad and mom as an adolescent. Pollack managed to get these convictions reversed and all costs in opposition to him dismissed.
“I feel he has ability units from a lifetime of illustration that makes him very effectively ready for defending this sort of case,” Owen stated.
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