Who is Barry Pollack? The Assange plea-deal lawyer now defending Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro in New York

• Barry Pollack, who freed Assange, to defend ex-Venezuelan president Maduro.
• Maduro faces US charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracy
• Pollack's high-risk case and international law expertise vital for Maduro's defense

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Filings show that the former Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, will be represented by Barry Pollack, a seasoned Washington trial attorney best known for negotiating the plea deal that freed Julian Assange last summer.

For a case that blends geopolitics, national security, and allegations of organised crime, Pollack is a deliberate choice.

A lawyer built for high-risk cases

Pollack is a partner at Harris St Laurent & Wechsler LLP and has spent more than three decades defending individuals and institutions in some of the United States’ most sensitive criminal matters. His practice spans financial and business crimes, public corruption, national security cases, and investigations involving alleged fraud in securities, taxation, healthcare, and banking.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, and a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, credentials that place him firmly in the top tier of US defence attorneys.

In legal circles, Pollack is known less for theatrics and more for quiet, surgical negotiations, a reputation cemented by the Assange case, where he brokered a deal that led to Assange’s immediate release from prison after years of diplomatic and legal deadlock.

Why Pollack matters in the Maduro case

Maduro’s prosecution is being handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the same office that indicted him in 2020 and one of the most aggressive federal prosecutor’s offices in the country.

The indictment accuses Maduro and senior allies of abusing state power for more than two decades to funnel tonnes of cocaine into the United States. The charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons-related offences involving machine guns and destructive devices.

This is where Pollack’s background becomes critical.

Maduro is expected to argue that he is immune from US criminal prosecution because he was a foreign head of state. This defence sits at the intersection of criminal law, international law, and US foreign policy. Pollack has extensive experience navigating precisely these grey zones, where courtroom arguments collide with diplomatic precedent.

The case is expected to be overseen by Alvin Hellerstein, the same judge assigned to the original 2020 indictment.

From Caracas to Manhattan and now the courtroom

Maduro, 63, was flown into Manhattan by helicopter and transferred to an armoured vehicle under tight security. He appeared in a tan prison jumpsuit with bright orange shoes and was escorted by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The image was stark: a leader who once commanded a state apparatus now standing before a US federal court, and relying on one of America’s most experienced defence lawyers to challenge the case.

For Pollack, this is not just another client. It is a test of whether legal skill can hold its own against the full weight of US prosecutorial power, and whether arguments about immunity, sovereignty, and jurisdiction still carry force in an era of cross-border criminal prosecutions.