Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his partner have been presented to a federal court in Manhattan by the United States. The case is assigned to Alvin Hellerstein, a senior judge of the Southern District of New York. The judge has garnered public interest and virtually the whole world has heard of him, especially online, considering he is already 92 years old.
Profile of Judge Alvin Hellerstein
- Alvin Hellerstein came into this world in New York in 1933. He graduated from Columbia University Law School with a degree in law. After law school, he worked for the government as a lawyer in the army. After the army service, he started a private practice.
- In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed him as a judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. He has been continuously working as a judge for more than twenty years.
Notable Cases in His Judicial Career
- Judge Hellerstein has seen a number of prominent civil and criminal cases during his career. He conducted the legal process concerning the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington.
- He had already been in the spotlight when he turned down former President Donald Trump’s plea to relocate a hush money case related to an adult film actress to federal court. One more ruling he made was segregation of the attempts made by the Trump administration to interrogate the Venezuelan drug cartel without judicial authority from the administration.
- He has been the judge in charge of the proceedings for over 15 years related to a massive drug-trafficking investigation involving the filing of charges by the U.S. against Nicolás Maduro that was done in 2020. One of the individuals that were convicted is Hugo Armando, the former intelligence chief of Venezuela, and he has been punished for his role in the whole affair.
Maduro's Legal Counsel
- Nicolás Maduro is being represented by American lawyer Barry J. Pollack. Pollack gained international recognition in 2024 after successfully representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and securing his release from prison.
- Over a legal career spanning more than 30 years, Pollack has represented corporate executives as well as political leaders in high-profile cases.
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