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When the deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro goes on trial in New York, he will be represented by an experienced lawyer who is no stranger to complex cases at the intersection of geopolitics and the law.
Maduro has tapped the services of Barry J. Pollack, a partner at Harris St. Laurent & Weschler LLP, a boutique law firm based in New York, where the authoritarian former leader and his wife face various charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty at their first court appearance Monday, when Pollack was by the ousted president’s side.
Pollack previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, steering the anti-secrecy activist’s legal strategy in the U.S. for more than a decade. Pollack helped secure a 2024 plea deal that led to Assange’s release from prison.
Assange pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act for publishing classified military and diplomatic documents. He had been accused of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and release top-secret national defense information, and federal investigators said his leaks jeopardized national security.
Andy Birrell, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a group that Pollack once headed, told NBC News that his colleague’s experience representing an internationally controversial defendant like Assange was good preparation for the Maduro case.
“There’s always challenges in high-profile cases, but Barry’s a veteran,” Birrell said. “He’s done it before.”
Pollack did not immediately reply to an interview request for this article. In a brief exchange with an NBC News reporter after Maduro’s arraignment, Pollack said: “I think what President Maduro said in court speaks for itself.” Maduro, speaking through a translator in court, declared his innocence, claimed he was “kidnapped” and insisted he was still president of Venezuela.
In an interview with the legal publication Lawdragon published in early April, Pollack was asked what he found most fulfilling about his profession. In his response, Pollack said he felt fortunate to have formed a personal rapport with nearly every client he has represented.
“Typically, when I meet with a client, they are facing what may be the worst crisis that they have ever faced,” Pollack told Lawdragon. “At the end of the day, it’s no longer a stranger who I’m seeing get through to the other side of this terrible piece of their life. It’s somebody that I’ve come to know and respect.”
It was not immediately known what led Maduro to hire Pollack, a graduate of Indiana University and Georgetown University School of Law. (Flores is represented by a different attorney: Mark Donnelly, a veteran Houston prosecutor.)
“He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t feel is the right thing to do,” Birrell said of Pollack. “Beyond that, I don’t know what his selection methods are. Whatever they are, I think President Maduro is going to be the beneficiary of them.”
Birrell said Pollack is known for being a “meticulous” and “unassuming” professional who understands how to clearly explain complex legal concepts and persuade juries.
“He’s a person that absolutely reeks credibility,” Birrell said. “I think that Barry’s a person who presents as someone who is trying to get at the truth and people like that, they respect that.”
C. Melissa Owen, the president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, agreed with that assessment, praising Pollack’s courtroom communication abilities.
“I would say he has Ivy League intellect with Midwestern sensibilities in terms of being able to communicate with the American public,” Owen said.
Pollack’s legal career spans more than 30 years, according to his firm’s website. In that time, according to the law firm guide Chambers USA, Pollack cultivated a reputation in elite legal circles as a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials.”
Assange’s case was perhaps Pollack’s most notable foray into the national spotlight before Maduro enlisted him.
Assange and his website claimed responsibility for leaking classified U.S. military documents and videos from the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including video of an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed civilians. The disclosures drew wide attention and embarrassed the U.S. government.
In remarks to reporters after Assange’s release in 2024, Pollack argued that his client never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and framed the case as a test of free speech rights.
“He has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information,” Pollack said.
Pollack previously won a complete acquittal for Michael Krautz, a former Enron accountant who faced criminal fraud charges. The not guilty verdict for Krautz was hailed by Pollack’s firm as one of the few acquittals stemming from the various prosecutions that followed the collapse of Enron, one of the most spectacular business sagas of the early 2000s.
He also defended Martin Tankleff, a New York man who served 17 years in prison after having been wrongfully convicted of killing his parents as a teenager. Pollack managed to get those convictions reversed and all charges against him dismissed.
“I think he has skill sets from a lifetime of representation that makes him very well prepared for defending this type of case,” Owen said.
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