A federal judge in Manhattan has barred Bruce Fein from representing Venezuela’s deposed President Nicolás Maduro, after finding that Mr Fein was never authorised by the defendant to act on his behalf.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said Mr Fein lacked the right to appear for Mr Maduro because he had not been hired by the Venezuelan leader.
Mr Fein, a lawyer for Nnamdi Kanu, the imprisoned Nigerian leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.
Mr Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism in 2025. He had been to the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court and the State Secret Service facility multiple times to see Mr Kanu.
Since Mr Maduro was abducted from Caracas to Manhattan to stand trial for narco-terrorism charges, lawyers have jostled to represent him, given his high-profile personality. Among them were Mr Fein, Barry J. Pollack and David Wikstrom.
Mr Pollack represented Mr Maduro at his arraignment in the federal court in Manhattan.
Mr Fein had succeeded in entering the court on Thursday to stand in for the Venezuelan leader. But Mr Maduro appeared not to recognise or approve his representation, prompting Mr Pollack to file papers with the court stating that Mr Fein lacks the Venezuelan leader’s consent to represent him.
He said Mr Fein appointed himself as Mr Maduro’s lawyer without his consent.
“I confirmed with Mr Maduro that he does not know Mr Fein and has not communicated with Mr Fein, much less retained him,” Mr Pollack stated.
Mr Fein told The New York Times that money was not his motivation to stand as Mr Maduro’s attorney, arguing that “time was of the essence”. He said he was contacted by the president’s family members to represent him.
“I received no funds or promises of funds,” he told The Times on Friday. “I was informed that Maduro’s insiders — including brother-in-law — suspected betrayal and trusted no one in Maduro’s hastily arranged initial representation.”
Although Mr Pollack introduced himself as Mr Maduro’s lawyer on January 5, Mr Fein applied to join the defendant’s team the following day, and the judge had approved the request until Mr Pollack contested it.
Mr Fein insisted he acted “in good faith” after being contacted by “individuals credibly situated within President Maduro’s inner circle” and asked the judge to privately question Mr Maduro to verify his claim.
But the judge tossed out Mr Fein’s argument, ruling that unknown individuals had no business appointing counsel for a defendant.
“Unnamed persons cannot appoint counsel; only a defendant can do so,” Mr Hellerstein said. “If Maduro wishes to retain Fein, he has the ability to do so,” the judge stated in his ruling to settle the spat. “Fein cannot appoint himself to represent Maduro.”
Mr Fein faced a similar situation at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court in November 2021, when Justice Binta Nyako refused him entry to the heavily secured courtroom during Mr Kanu’s hearing.
Mr Kanu pleaded with the judge to allow Mr Fein into the courtroom, saying DSS agents had also denied the lawyer access to him in detention.
“I have an ongoing case in the U.S. I have not been allowed to see him (Bruce Fein). He (Mr Fein) is here to see me and to observe proceedings,” Mr Kanu told the court. “He (Mr Fein) has been to the DSS to see me, but they denied him access to me.”
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