To organize his defense, Nicolas Maduro chose a tenor from the bar, Barry Pollack. Accustomed to media reports, this 61-year-old lawyer notably defended WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange in his fight to avoid extradition to the United States.

Published on: 01/06/2026 - 7:51 p.m. Modified on: 01/06/2026 - 9:33 p.m.

The American lawyer of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Barry Pollack, is experienced in complex and high-profile cases, having notably defended Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.

From the very first and brief appearance of Nicolas Maduro before the American courts on Monday January 5 to answer to drug trafficking charges, Barry Pollack, 61, contested "the legality of his kidnapping" by American forces on January 3 during a night operation.

Also read Trial of Nicolas Maduro: who is judge Alvin Hellerstein in charge of the case?

Accustomed to media affairs

A graduate of Indiana University (north) then the law school of Georgetown University in Washington, former president of the American Association of Criminal Lawyers, he currently works in a New York law firm.

Barry Pollack distinguished himself in 2024 by negotiating a guilty plea agreement for his client Julien Assange with the US Department of Justice, allowing him to return free to Australia after years of detention in the United Kingdom and to escape extradition to the United States at the end of a saga of almost 15 years.

In another closely followed case, in 2006 he obtained the acquittal of a former manager of the energy giant Enron, Michael Krautz, accused of a $111 million accounting fraud.

This tenor of the bar also managed to have Martin Tankleff exonerated, a man wrongly convicted of the murder of his parents when he was a teenager, and who had spent 17 years in prison.

With AFP

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.