00:00For a president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife appeared in a Manhattan federal court today.
00:05This was the second appearance, and as we were standing outside, there were protesters along the street.
00:09Most of them were actually protesting the detention of Maduro, being against U.S. interventionism around the world as they
00:16saw it.
00:16But inside, Maduro and his wife Celia Flores appeared in khaki jumpsuits.
00:21Maduro listened to the proceedings on headphones that were translating into Spanish.
00:25He needed a pair of glasses. He took on and off, according to our reporters inside.
00:28He was also taking notes.
00:29Now, one of the big issues, this was a pre-trial motion, and one of the big issues that his
00:33lawyers were trying to discuss was actually how he was going to pay his lawyers.
00:37Venezuela is sanctioned under the U.S. government, and the prosecutor is arguing that Maduro should not be able to
00:44use Venezuelan federal money to pay his lawyer, who one might imagine is probably fairly expensive.
00:50His lawyer was arguing that he should be able to and wouldn't have the means otherwise to come up with
00:55his own defense.
00:56Now, under OFAC sanctions, that money is not allowed to flow to the United States.
01:02It's frozen.
01:03But part of it has been able to use for his personal funds.
01:06The prosecutor was arguing it shouldn't be able to be used for his defense, and he should be using a
01:10public defender.
01:10Now, it seems the judge tends to side with the lawyer, saying that there's no national security concerns with giving
01:17Maduro enough money to hire an attorney and defend himself.
01:21But the judge did not rule on that today.
01:23Other things that still have to be worked out are timings and other pre-trial motions.
01:27It could be as long as a year before this case actually goes before a jury.
01:32Christina Ruffini, Bloomberg.
01:33And I'll see you next time.
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