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(MINNEAPOLIS) — President Donald Trump said the 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday was at fault because she tried to “run over” the officer, according to an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.  

“I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either,” Trump told the publication, calling it a “vicious situation.”

State and local officials have pushed back on the assertions from the White House and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calling the claims about the driver “b——-” and telling ICE to “get the f— out” and Gov. Tim Walz calling it “propaganda.”

The fatal shooting was captured on video by bystanders. In the video, which ABC News has verified, the driver, who was identified by city council members as Renee Nicole Good, is driving her SUV on a road near ICE officers. As one officer reaches for the SUV’s door handle, the vehicle lurches backward and then begins moving forward, rightward, seemingly away from the officers. One of the officers can be seen firing into the moving vehicle.

Protesters gathered on the city’s streets on Wednesday. And the FBI said in a statement, “Consistent with our investigative protocol, the incident is under review, and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners.”

Noem on Wednesday described the driver’s actions as an “act of domestic terrorism,” saying that an “anti-ICE rioter weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement.”

“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement posted on social media.

State officials on Wednesday pushed back on such characterizations. The state’s attorney general, Keith Elllison, said in a statement that he was “heartbroken” over the shooting, but was also “angry. Very angry.” He accused the Trump administration of “weaponizing the federal government against the people of Minnesota.”

The death amounted to a “policy failure,” Ellison told ABC News in an interview, adding that there would be “an analysis on the use of force here.” Ellison said that the blame appeared to lie in part with Trump, who authorized the deployment, adding, “That’s not to take responsibility from the officer who used deadly force in a situation that does not appear to call for it.” 

Walz said on social media, “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”

Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said Wednesday that the department’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is working in conjunction with the FBI to investigate the shooting.

The FBI said in a statement on Wednesday, “Consistent with our investigative protocol, the incident is under review, and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners.”

Officials have not released the name of the officer who opened fire.

Trump on Wednesday had said the officer acted in “self defense.”

“The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” he said in a post on social media. 

When Trump was pressed by the Times on how he drew his conclusions about the incident, the president reportedly had an aide play a video clip from a laptop to reinforce his point.

Asked if he believed firing into a vehicle similar to Wednesday’s shooting is acceptable, Trump reportedly stuck to his position, saying of Good that she “behaved horribly.”

“And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over,” Trump said, according to the repot.

Before playing the clip to the Times reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, “With all of it being said, no, I don’t like that happening.”

When reporters told him the clip he was showing did not appear to show an ICE officer was run over, he told them, “it’s a terrible scene.” 

“I think it’s horrible to watch,” Trump said. “No, I hate to see it.”

Ellison told ABC News that after he viewed the video, it was “clear to me” that the deadly force came as the driver was attempting to “evade” the officers, including the one who fatally shot her. 

“Renee Good deserves justice, and my office will not look away,” Ellison said on social media on Wednesday evening. “As Attorney General, I will do everything in my power to pursue the truth and ensure accountability and transparency.”

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(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — A judge sided with defense lawyers on Thursday and is instructing jurors to completely disregard the testimony of a former teacher who is a key prosecution witness in the trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales.

Former teacher Stephanie Hale returned to the witness stand for an hour on Thursday in an effort to salvage her testimony, but defense lawyers ultimately argued that allowing her testimony to stand would endanger Gonzales’ right to a fair trial.

“There’s no doubt that this was crucial to the [defense] strategy,” Judge Sid Harle said. “I don’t think I have any choice, having denied the mistrial — other than to craft a remedy that will protect the due process rights and hopefully avoid any appellate review that would result in this case being reversed —  so I am reluctantly going to instruct the jury to disregard her testimony in its entirety.”

Before instructing the jury, the judge personally thanked Hale for her testimony and emphasized that she was not at fault.

“I want to emphasize that you did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s not on you,” the judge said. “I want to tell you, just from personal experience, memories of traumatic events change.”

When Hale was on the stand Thursday, defense attorney Jason Goss attempted to point out that her original account — provided to state investigators four days after the May 2022 shooting — differed from what she told the jury on Tuesday. 

“Seeing a shooter, and being shot at, are important details, you would agree with that?” Goss said. 

“It depends on who you are,” she responded. “I don’t know. I guess possibly.”

Gonzales, who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, is charged with 29 counts of child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty. His legal team says he did all he could to help students and maintains he’s being scapegoated.

If convicted on all counts, Gonzales could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the shooting. Investigations faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — A judge in New York has rejected Harvey Weinstein’s bid for a new trial, ruling juror complaints about decorum in the deliberation room were adequately addressed.

Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway.” 

The defense said two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict. 

Judge Curtis Farber decided on Thursday, “The Court’s response to the jurors’ complaints appropriately balanced the competing interests of investigating the allegations while avoiding any unnecessary taint of the deliberating jury.”

Weinstein is now consulting with his attorneys about when he will be re-tried for the rape count he faces in connection with an alleged 2013 assault of Jessica Mann. The judge declared a mistrial on that one count after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would retry Weinstein on that count.  

Weinstein, 73, remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said he is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said she wants to “get Americans away from the highly processed packaged foods,” saying those foods are driving the obesity epidemic in America, following the release on Wednesday of new federal dietary guidelines.

“This is a whole flipping of the narrative,” Rollins said in an exclusive interview on “Good Morning America” that aired on Thursday. “It’s a flipping of what we’ve known over the last couple of decades.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the new federal dietary guidelines on Wednesday, encouraging Americans to limit highly processed food and reduce refined carbohydrates.

The new recommendations essentially turn the old food pyramid upside down, encouraging Americans to eat whole foods like fruits and vegetables, to incorporate healthy fats, to prioritize protein-rich meals including red meat and to consume full-fat dairy and whole grains with no added sugars.

“Today was a reset of all of that in these dietary guidelines focusing on eating real food, nutrient dense foods, saturated fat, meats, fruits and vegetables, whole milk, all of that now becomes front and center,” said Rollins. “And that’s real, that’s unprecedented.”

Other recommendations include limiting added sugars and highly processed foods like potato chips or cookies, as well as sweetened beverages like energy drinks, soda, and diet sodas due to their artificial sweeteners.

The guidance puts a new focus on what the administration is calling “healthy fats,” such as full-fat dairy like yogurt and cheese, and using olive oil, beef tallow or butter as a cooking oil, a recommendation that Kennedy Jr. has championed This is in contrast to the American Heart Association recommendation to “limit high-fat animal products including red meat, butter, lard and tallow, which are linked to increased cardiovascular risk.”

“Our goal is to get Americans away from the highly processed packaged foods, which is the driver in the obesity epidemic that’s facing our country right now,” Rollins told “GMA” on Thursday.

Some of these choices, however, could be costly for many Americans as they face rising grocery prices, including ground beef, which has risen 16% over the past year, according to officials.

“This is just about a general awareness amongst America on what is healthy and what we should be eating,” Rollins continued.

The guidelines also say Americans should “limit alcoholic beverages.” Previously, the dietary guidelines said adults ages 21 and over should stick to two drinks or fewer per day for men and one drink or fewer per day for women.

“The recommendation is just minimize, minimize, minimize, minimize,” Rollins said. “We’re not saying everyone should stop eating sugar and stop drinking anything. That’s not it. It’s just working to trend away from where we’ve gotten to in the last couple decades.”

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years, come as Kennedy has made nutrition policy a cornerstone of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

“Let’s focus on these good, nutritious foods,” Rollins said. “This will change everything.”

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(NEW YORK) — A mission to the International Space Station may end early due to a medical situation involving one of the astronauts aboard the station.

NASA announced that it was postponing Thursday’s spacewalk because “the agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex.” 

The space agency then followed up with a statement saying, “Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission.”

The crew of four was gearing up for the first spacewalk of 2026, which was slated for Thursday morning. 

“These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely. We will provide further updates within the next 24 hours,” the agency wrote.

If NASA needs to end the Crew-11 mission early, there are two spacecraft capable of returning humans to Earth docked to the station, including the SpaceX Dragon that brought the crew to the ISS in August. There are currently seven astronauts aboard the station, and three would remain should Crew-11 return early. The launch window for the Crew-12 mission opens Feb. 15.

NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were scheduled to work outside of the ISS for more than six hours to install a modification kit and route cables for a future roll-out solar array, according to the agency. They were also planning to add jumper cables, photograph the hardware and collect five microorganism samples near the station’s airlock.

At the time, the agency said it was not appropriate to share additional details due to medical privacy reasons, but confirmed the situation was stable and that a new date for the spacewalk would be announced later. 

While NASA hasn’t revealed which astronaut is affected by the medical issue, the crew consists of two American astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. The American astronauts were scheduled to participate in the postponed spacewalk.

The four members of Crew-11 traveled to the ISS on Aug. 1, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. It was the first time in space for two of the four crew members — NASA astronaut and mission commander Cardman and Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Oleg Platonov. The mission is NASA astronaut and mission pilot Fincke’s fourth trip to the station and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and mission specialist Kimiya Yui’s second trip.

NASA selected Cardman to be part of the 2017 class of astronauts. A Williamsburg, Virginia, native, she holds degrees in biology and marine sciences. 

Fincke is a space veteran, having spent more than a year in orbit and having performed nine spacewalks. The retired Air Force colonel previously served as an ISS commander and mission specialist. 

Yui, a mission specialist, is returning to the ISS for a second visit after previously spending 142 days aboard the station as part of Expeditions 44 and 45. 

Platonov, a graduate of the Krasnodar Air Force Academy, became a cosmonaut in 2018 and will serve as a mission specialist.

“I cannot tell you enough how meaningful it is to have a crew that is as kind and as thoughtful and as wonderful as they are incredibly technically competent, incredible astronauts, cosmonauts coming from multiple agencies, many different backgrounds. They make my job very, very easy as commander,” Cardman said during a pre-launch press conference.

The crew marked a historic milestone for the ISS in November, when NASA celebrated 25 years since the first crew arrived at the station.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program that partners with private companies to deliver humans to and from the ISS. According to NASA, Crew-11 is the “11th crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its 12th flight with astronauts.”

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(NEW YORK) — New York would become the first state to require manufacturers of 3D printers to block production of guns and gun parts under new legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed Wednesday. 

The proposed legislation would also make it a crime to possess or sell the digital blueprints needed to produce 3D-printed firearms without a license to do so. 

“From the iron pipeline to the plastic pipeline, these proposals will keep illegal ghost guns off of New York streets, and enhance measures to track and block the production of dangerous and illegal firearms in our state,” Hochul said in a statement announcing the proposal.

Some 3D printing companies, including Thingiverse, have already begun deploying technology to rapidly detect and remove the digital blueprints for guns. 

Earlier this year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent letters to 3D printing companies asking them to help combat the spread of homemade guns, which he called a “growing threat.”  Luigi Mangione allegedly used a 3D-printed gun and silencer in the December 2024 assassination-style killing of United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson. 

Bragg called on the companies to remove online blueprints, known as CAD files, that can be used to print firearms and gun parts without a background check. The district attorney’s office conceded that the measure will not stop the proliferation of ghost guns, but said the goal is to make it harder for people to find the designs to create them. 

“These illegal firearms are being manufactured in homes and used in crimes right now, which is why I have been working with my colleagues in Albany and the private sector over the past several years to stop their proliferation. Passing these measures will reduce crime and strengthen public safety for all New Yorkers,” Bragg said in the governor’s statement. 

In addition to criminalizing the unlicensed possession of CAD files for guns and requiring manufacturers to use technology to block the printer from creating guns, the proposed legislation would also mandate the reporting of 3D printed guns to a state police database, and would require gun manufacturers to design pistols so they cannot be quickly and easily modified for automatic fire.

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(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein is due to return to a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday for a hearing that could determine whether he receives a new trial.

Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway.”  Haley testified the “unthinkable” happened to her when Weinstein held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her after she told him no. 

The defense said two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict. 

Judge Curtis Farber is set to decide whether he needs to hear testimony from those jurors before deciding whether to grant Weinstein’s motion for a new trial.

If the judge denies Weinstein’s motion for a new trial, defense attorneys said there are grounds to appeal his conviction.

Weinstein has not been sentenced on the Haley count and remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said the 73-year-old is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”

The jury was unable to come to a verdict on a charge that alleged Weinstein raped actress Jessica Mann in 2013. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it intends to re-try Weinstein on that count, and during Thursday’s hearing, Farber is expected to decide when to move forward.

Mann broke down on the witness stand as she recounted meeting Weinstein when she was 27 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. In March 2013, Mann said she was visiting New York when she accompanied Weinstein to a hotel room. She said he injected himself with an erectile medication and raped her. The defense questioned whether Mann was out for money and said she had consensual sex with Weinstein at other times.

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(SALT LAKE CITY) — Police in Salt Lake City said two people are dead and six others wounded after a shooting outside a funeral on Wednesday evening.

No suspects are in custody and an active manhunt is underway, Salt Lake City Police Department public information officer Glen Mills said.

Police received a call for the shooting shortly after 7:30 p.m. local time at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel on Redwood Road.

Police said a funeral was taking place at the chapel when an altercation broke out in the parking lot and shots were fired.

Of the surviving victims, three are in critical condition and three are in unknown condition.

Police are still determining if there was one suspect or multiple suspects.

In a statement, Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the church was aware of a “serious incident” outside the church meetinghouse while a memorial service was taking place.

“We extend prayers for all who have been impacted by this tragedy and express deep concern that any sacred space intended for worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” the statement said.

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(MINNEAPOLIS) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he has issued an order to prepare the state’s National Guard while urging peaceful protest after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a woman in her car during operations in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Walz and the Minneapolis mayor are disputing the government’s claims surrounding what led up to the shooting, which killed a 37-year-old woman.

“We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever,” Walz said during a news conference, decrying the shooting as “preventable” and “unnecessary.” 

According to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, the woman was allegedly “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers” when an ICE officer fatally shot her Wednesday morning.

Following the shooting, a large crowd gathered in the area, which is less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020.

The governor said he has issued a “warning order” to prepare the Minnesota National Guard, saying there are soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed “if necessary,” while urging “peaceful resistance.”

“I want Minnesotans to hear this from me: The desire to get out in the protest and to speak up to this administration of how wrong this is, that is a patriotic duty at this point in time, but it needs to be done safely,” he said.

“I feel your anger, I am angry. They want a show, we can’t give it to them,” he said.

President Donald Trump said the officer acted in “self defense.” 

“The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump posted on social media. 

The Minneapolis mayor, however, at an impassioned news conference, said that he saw video of the incident and claimed the agent’s actions were not self-defense.

“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying — getting killed,” Mayor Jacob Frey said.

Frey said it does not appear the victim was driving her car toward the agent and using her car as a weapon. She was a U.S. citizen who was “an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors,” according to Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez.

Minneapolis police said preliminary information indicates that she was in her car and blocking the road.

“At some point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot, and the vehicle began to drive off,” police said. “At least two shots were fired … the vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”

“There is nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity,” police added.

The woman had gunshot wounds to the head and was transported to an area hospital, where she died, according to city officials.

The governor said he doesn’t have a “definitive ID” of the woman.

In describing the shooting, McLaughlin said that an ICE officer, “fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.”

“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers,” she said, referring to the woman as part of a group of “rioters.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the incident was an “act of domestic terrorism.”

“What had happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action, they got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis,” she said during remarks at a press briefing in Texas. “They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.”

Frey said his message to ICE is to “get the f— out” of Minneapolis.

“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” Frey said.

Walz said during Wednesday’s briefing that he has reached out to Noem and is awaiting a response.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is working in conjunction with the FBI to investigate the shooting, according to Commissioner Bob Jacobson.

“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy, so any speculation about what had happened would be just that, and we will not engage in speculation,” Jacobson said during the briefing.

Walz said earlier on X that the state will “ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”

The FBI said in a statement, “Consistent with our investigative protocol, the incident is under review, and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners.”

The Twin Cities are seeing a massive deployment of ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents to conduct immigration enforcement and fraud investigations, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. 

As many as 2,000 agents from ICE and HSI could be headed to the Minneapolis area, but a source cautioned that the number of agents could change.

Sources have told ABC News that as many as 600 HSI agents are being deployed and 1,400 ICE agents could be deployed as part of the increased enforcement operation. 

Noem was on the ground in Minneapolis on Tuesday, conducting immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration has zeroed in on accusations of fraud at Somali-run childcare centers in recent weeks. 

At the end of a House Oversight Committee hearing on alleged social services fraud in Minnesota on Wednesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., put forth a motion to subpoena DHS for all documents and footage related to Wednesday’s deadly ICE shooting.

Ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., called it a “horrific killing.”

“I encourage folks to watch those videos and see what’s happened for themselves,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that this committee investigates this incident and that we have full accountability.”

ABC News’ Laura Romero and Emily Chang contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — As Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were arraigned this week on narco-terrorism charges, the key legal players in the case included a 92-year-old judge and the attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The case with international implications will feature high-profile defense attorneys and will be presided over by the most senior U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Monday pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges. The next court date is set for March 17.

The Judge

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein was appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by former President Bill Clinton and was confirmed by the Senate through unanimous consent.

Known by colleagues and lawyers as a no-nonsense jurist with an independent streak, Hellerstein presided over the 2019 federal civil trial of Harvey Weinstein, brought by 16 women who accused the former movie mogul of sexual assault.

In a major July 2020 ruling, Hellerstein, who turned 92 last month, tossed a $19 million settlement in the Weinstein civil case, saying that it failed to adequately compensate the accusers.

In his decision, Hellerstein slammed the settlement proposal as unfair, noting that accusers who had merely met Weinstein would receive compensation equal to those who were allegedly sexually assaulted by him.

“What is there to make me believe that a person who just met Harvey Weinstein has the same claim as the person who is raped by Harvey Weinstein?” the judge asked during a hearing on the settlement. 

Additionally, the judge said it was “obnoxious” that the settlement proposal would have included money to cover the legal fees for Weinstein and other directors of his former company. 

Hellerstein has also ruled against President Donald Trump, whose Justice Department is prosecuting Maduro, in multiple instances.

In 2023 and 2024, Hellerstein rejected requests by Trump’s attorneys to move a case charging him with falsifying business records to hide hush-money payments to adult movie star Stormy Daniels from state court to federal court.

“Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President,” Hellerstein wrote in his ruling.

Trump was eventually convicted in state court on 34 felony counts.

In April 2025, Hellerstein blocked the Trump administration from deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, ruling that migrants being held in the Southern District of New York could not be deported without them first receiving notice and an opportunity for a hearing.

Maduro’s attorney

Barry Pollack, Maduro’s attorney, has more than 30 years of experience as a lawyer and has represented high-profile clients. 

During Maduro’s arraignment on Monday, Pollack signaled that that he could assert that he is entitled, as a foreign leader, to protection against prosecution.

“He is the head of a sovereign state,” Pollack said in court, adding that there are “issues about the legality of his military abduction.”

Among the attorney’s past clients is Julian Assange. In June 2024, Pollack negotiated a plea agreement for the WikiLeaks founder who was charged with violating the Espionage Act for publishing classified information he obtained from Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst.

Under the plea agreement that Pollack hammered out with the Department of Justice, Assange was freed from prison in June 2024 after pleading guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information.

Pollack — a partner in the Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler law firm in New York City and Washington, D.C. — also won the freedom of Martin Tankleff, a Long Island, New York, teenager who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents in 1988. Tankleff was released from prison in 2008 after Pollack successfully filed an appeal, arguing there was insufficient evidence to convict him.

Pollack also defended Michael Krautz, former accountant for the Enron Corp., who was charged along with other company executives with fraud and conspiracy to falsify business records stemming from overstated earnings of the company’s now-defunct subsidiary Enron Broadband Services.

Krautz was acquitted of the charges in 2006, just days after Enron founder Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling were convicted on similar charges in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

“Barry’s unwavering commitment to his clients, the defense function, and the Constitution serves as inspiration to criminal defense lawyers across the nation,” Christopher W. Adams, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in 2021, as the organization honored Pollack with its Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award.

Maduro also added constitutional law expert Bruce Fein to his legal defense team, according to a notice on the court docket on Tuesday. Fein has written critically about the Trump administration’s deportation policies and the president’s use of pardons.

Maduro’s wife’s lawyer

Houston-based defense attorney Mark Donnelly, a former federal prosecutor, has been retained by Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores.

Donnelly is the former senior advisor to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas and was a federal prosecutor for 12 years before going into private practice. He is now a partner in the Houston law firm Parker Sanchez & Donnelly.

“With over 100 jury trials under his belt, Mark not only is extremely comfortable in the courtroom, but also has the knowledge and experience to guide clients through all phases of representation,” his bio on his law firm’s website says.

According to the bio, Donnelly spent eight years as a prosecutor in the Harris County, Texas, District Attorney’s Office, where he led investigations into elected officials and others charged with violating the public trust.

In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives recruited Donnelly to assist in the historic investigation and impeachment trial of then-state Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, who was accused of bribery and abusing his office to protect a donor accused of making false statements to secure business loans.

Paxton, a Republican, was acquitted in September 2023.

Donnelly is a proficient Spanish speaker and was once designated as a bilingual assistant prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“We look forward to reviewing and challenging the evidence the government has,” Donnelly said in a statement to Houston Public Media about representing Flores. “While we would love to present our side now, we will wait to do so in court at the appropriate time. The first lady is aware that there is a long road ahead and is prepared.”

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