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The United States will allow Venezuela to pay for ousted President Nicolas Maduro’s legal defence, a court filing has showed.
A court filing by federal prosecutors in New York on Friday said the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had issued amended licences allowing defence lawyers to receive payments from the Venezuelan government.
The filing said the funds must have become available after March 5, 2026, and could not come from Venezuelan oil sales regulated by the United States.
US Treasury sanctions had previously prevented Venezuela, now governed by Maduro’s deputy, from sending funds to lawyers representing Maduro and his wife, who were seized by US forces in an overnight raid in early January and taken to New York to face federal criminal charges.
Their legal team had asked the court to dismiss the cases, arguing that blocking the funding violated the US constitutional right to counsel of one’s choice.
Since Maduro’s removal in January, the United States has effectively overseen Venezuelan oil exports, with proceeds placed in special accounts supervised by Washington.
According to the filing, the defence acknowledged the sanctions waiver and has withdrawn, for now, its motion seeking dismissal of the charges.
Maduro has described himself as a prisoner of war and pleaded not guilty to four charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons-related offences.
