Why a judge denied Nicolás Maduro's petition to dismiss charges

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A federal judge has rejected the request

by former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro

to dismiss his drug trafficking case.

The ousted leader appeared in court

alongside his wife, Celia Flores yesterday.

Both have pleaded not guilty.

CBS News correspondent, national correspondent Lila Luciano

was there.

You were inside the courtroom.

What stood out to you seeing them there in person

and what happened yesterday?

It was first thing that stood out.

I have been covering Maduro for so long

and I have tried to interview Maduro

when I was in Venezuela covering the election.

Everything that has happened in Venezuela

over the last two years has been cataclysmic.

So seeing this figure in person for the first time personally

and as a journalist was striking,

I expected him to look weaker.

He didn't.

He looked strong.

He lost weight.

He looked healthy.

Celia, his wife, also even though her attorney's brought out

that she's dealing with some heart issues

and they want her to have an EKG or she has had EKGs

and they want to follow up on that.

The judge was fine with that.

They both seemed calmer, confident than the first time.

The first time Maduro said, I'm a prisoner of war.

I'm still a prisoner of war, right?

Yeah.

I am a decent man.

This time, and I am innocent, he said too.

This time, he didn't speak other than greeting

his attorneys very warmly.

So those were kind of the highlights.

What stood out to me too, and this is something

that Katrina Kaufman and I were talking about after.

I asked her and she asked me.

I said, no, I'd never saw this.

They walked in through the same door.

I'm not sure if they were held in the same cell

on the other side of that courtroom.

There's the cell.

They walked in together, hands behind their back,

but not cuffed with the marshals and their attorneys.

I never saw them make eye contact with each other.

That I thought was interesting.

Celia Flores has been not just Maduro's wife.

She has been a figure of the regime

and held positions of power, even while Hugo Chavez

was the president of Venezuela.

So they both have a lot of information,

a lot of history, have been married for a long time,

have a lot of, I guess, things to say

that the attorneys might be interested in.

Are you, I don't want to make a summarizing

point of having to be a rift?

Maybe, I don't know.

Maybe they talked behind the scenes and hugged

and loved each other.

Who knows?

I didn't know.

I didn't see anything that could turn on each other.

Because that does happen.

But that could happen.

Yeah, I don't want to, I'm not in the business

of making the president Barack Obama.

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These assumptions, but I did think it was interesting

that they did not make eye contact.

But they both looked, actually, they looked really good.

He looked healthier than I saw him.

So don't go by the sketches.

My mom was asking, he looked terrible.

I'm like, I'll do respect to the sketch artist.

In person, he was shining, yeah.

So break down for the audience, the main argument

over the case, it's over legal fees.

Help me understand that.

That was the main thing.

There were a few things being discussed.

One important aspect of this is who gets to see the evidence.

You have to keep in mind that there are

co-defendants, in this case, who are still in power,

people like the Ozil Cabello, who's

still the minister of the interior,

who is negotiating deals with the US

while being a fugitive with a $25 million bounty on his head.

The judge, that doesn't make sense.

And that doesn't make a lot of sense.

But this is what the administration is doing

in this transition in Venezuela.

The judge did highlight how unique the series of circumstances

and how different unusual this case is.

But Vlad, to answer your question, the main thing,

which the judge said, I'm not going to dismiss the case

and everybody laughed.

Because what the prosecution is trying to do is say, look,

they can't afford their defense.

It's too burdensome on US taxpayers.

It has to go to the government of Venezuela

who's offering to pay.

But the US sanctions on Venezuela

are preventing the government of Venezuela

to pay for their defense.

Therefore, it needs to be dismissed.

The judge said, I'm not going to dismiss this case.

Find a solution to this.

The solution, the most immediate solution,

and what I think we all expect might happen

is the government of the United States

in terms of the prosecution.

The state would likely go back to the Treasury Department

and say, give me the license that will allow for his fees

to be covered by the government of Venezuela

in spite of those sanctions.

Because, by the way, we are in business with them.

Venezuela has made $18 billion in deals

from the U.S. since Malouta was removed.

The judge said, oh, the problem is fixed in Venezuela.

What's the point of the sanctions?

The problem is not fixed in Venezuela.

I mean, there's a lot of issues

for why the U.S. still has those sanctions in place.

But that is what we expect will happen next.

License granted, fees covered.

This moves to an eventual trial.

So potentially, the government of Venezuela

can pay for the legal fees for their former president

who is in U.S. custody and also a co-defendant

with the leaders of Venezuela who are still in play.

And the only reason this is happening

is because he refused to acknowledge the results

as evidence that he lost the election in 2024.

So we can talk to the Venezuelan tax tables

about how they feel about that, too.

Liliya, with the breakdown, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

President Barack Obama.

Virginia, we are counting on you.

Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress

to raid the next election and wield unchecked power

for two more years.

But you can stop them.

By voting yes, by April 21st.

Help put our elections back on a level playing field

and let voters decide not politicians.

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Paid for five Virginians for fair elections.

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