Who is Barry Pollack? Maduro’s lawyer helped free Wikileaks founder

Who is Barry Pollack? Maduro’s lawyer helped free Wikileaks founder

NEW YORK (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has retained Barry J. Pollack, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer known for securing Julian Assange’s release from prison and winning an acquittal for former Enron accountant Michael Krautz.

Pollack, a partner at the law firm Harris, St. Laurent & Wechsler, negotiated Assange’s 2024 plea agreement — allowing him to go free immediately after he pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge for obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets.

Krautz, acquitted of federal fraud charges in 2006 after a hung jury the year before, was one of the only Enron executives whose case ended in a not-guilty verdict. Nearly two-dozen other executives were convicted of wrongdoing in connection with the energy trading giant’s collapse.

Pollack also helped secure the exoneration of Martin Tankleff, a Long Island man who spent 17 years in prison for the murders of his parents before his conviction was overturned.

Maduro made his first appearance in an American courtroom on Monday to face the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York. He appeared before a judge around noon for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.

Maduro pleaded not guilty, telling the judge, “I am a decent man, the president of my country.” Maduro told the judge, “I was captured.”