Barry Pollack, Lawyer for Nicolás Maduro, Previously Defended Assange

Barry J. Pollack is the lawyer representing Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader captured on Saturday in a U.S. military raid on his country’s capital. Mr. Pollack, 61, is a seasoned trial lawyer who has handled complicated international cases, including representing Julian Assange.

In 2024, Mr. Pollack negotiated a deal with the Justice Department in which Mr. Assange would plead guilty outside the continental United States to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material; that guilty plea in the Northern Mariana Islands ended nearly 14 years of legal wrangling.

Mr. Pollack also won the acquittal of Michael Krautz, a former Enron executive, and in 2007 secured the freedom of Martin Tankleff, who had served 17 years after a wrongful conviction. Jon May, who represented Gen. Manuel Noriega in a case that has been compared with Mr. Maduro’s, said the captured Venezuelan leader “could not be in better hands” than those of Mr.

Pollack, but cautioned that did not mean Mr. Pollack “has the resources necessary to defend him.” Mr. May added that Mr. Maduro “certainly has a lawyer who will figure it out, if it can be figured out.” According to his law firm biography, Mr. Pollack earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1991, clerked for Judge Thomas A.

Key Topics

World, Barry Pollack, Nicolás Maduro, Julian Assange, Justice Department, Northern Mariana Islands