Nicolas Maduro's Arraignment on Severe Charges (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The self-proclaimed president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife finally were presented for an arraignment today in the SDNY in a Manhattan courtroom, standing accused of four very serious charges for Maduro and three for his wife. One of them is participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The other one was conspiring to import cocaine into the country. A third one involving using and carrying machine guns and detective devices in furtherance of these conspiracies and conspiring to use and carry such items in relation to narco-terrorism as well. Each of these carries mandatory minimums of at least 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison. Now, the prosecution has not yet handed over discovery in this matter. They await a protective order to be agreed upon between the different parties. They also want to have an opportunity to have a lengthy and voluminous and complex motion practice, likely to discuss whether he will have immunity as a head of state or international law implications. And they will also discuss the legality of his removal from Venezuela. They have agreed to waive his speedy trial right, which is his constitutional right, as a defendant in United States criminal court, until March 17th, their next court appearance. This has been years in the making. A federal jury indicting this matter and very serious charges and many co-defendants at task. There's a lot to unpack here in terms of what the defenses might potentially be. Maduro himself has Julian Assange's attorney, likely to have a lot of international law intersections here, and of course, the legality of his removal. For his wife, she has three of those four charges. The question remains, will they be tried together? Will she seek to be separated from him in that trial or other co-defendants as well? And of course, bail still on the horizon. They agreed not to request it at this time, but they reserve the right to go back and ask for it at a later date. A judge will only grant them bail to be released pending a trial, which is likely to take place next year, if the judge can be assured of their return to this courtroom to stand trial.