Nicolas Maduro has added a lawyer who represented hip-hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at trial to his defense team, court records showed on Thursday, as the ousted Venezuelan president prepares to fight the US drug trafficking charges he faces.
Anna Estevao of law firm Harris Trzaskoma was part of the team that secured acquittals for Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, which could have landed him in prison for life.
Who is Anna Estevao?
Estevao is a trial attorney at Harris Trzaskoma, a New York-based law firm. Her role in the Combs case drew wide attention during the trial.
At Combs’ trial, Estevao cross-examined star prosecution witness Casandra Ventura, Combs’ ex-girlfriend. Ventura had accused the Bad Boy Records founder of forcing her to take part in degrading sexual performances. Estevao showed jurors emails and text messages, some of which were sexually explicit, from early in Combs’ and Ventura’s relationship to try to portray her as a willing participant in the drug-fueled performances.
Combs was found guilty on two lesser prostitution-related counts and is serving a 50-month prison sentence at a federal lockup in New Jersey. He is appealing his convictions and his sentence.
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How she joined Maduro’s team
Estevao was added to the defense team two days after Harris Trzaskoma announced that Maduro’s Washington-based defense lawyer, Barry Pollack, was joining the firm. Pollack had previously been with the firm Harris St. Laurent.
Pollack is a veteran Washington trial lawyer who long represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He filed a notice of appearance as Maduro’s attorney in the Southern District of New York narco-terrorism case.
The defense team is now centralized under one firm, Harris Trzaskoma.
Maduro’s arrest and charges
On January 3, the Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and four other Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The indictment was released the same day Maduro was captured by U.S. special forces in Caracas. The indictment revises an earlier superseding indictment unsealed in 2020.
This indictment carries four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices.
Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal court on January 5 to charges that he led a conspiracy to transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. Maduro, who was removed from Venezuela by U.S. military forces, entered the plea just two days after landing in New York.
Maduro is jailed in Brooklyn ahead of trial.
What the defense plans to argue
Pollack has signaled he is prepared to challenge the legality of what he called Maduro’s “abduction” by the U.S. military during a January 3 raid on his home in Caracas.
Maduro is due to appear in federal court in Manhattan on June 30 for a hearing at which his lawyers are expected to discuss the pre-trial motions they plan to make to try to get the charges dismissed.
Background: The Cartel of the Suns
The US government had designated Nicolas Maduro as a fugitive since 2020, on charges of involvement in narcoterrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and machine gun possession. According to the Bureau of International Narcotics Matters at the U.S. Department of State, Maduro was involved in managing and leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” a drug trafficking organization comprising high-ranking Venezuelan officials.
What comes next
The June 30 hearing in Manhattan federal court will be a key date. Maduro’s defense team is expected to file motions challenging both the charges and the legality of how he was brought into U.S. custody. The case is being heard in the Southern District of New York, the same court that prosecuted Combs.