A U.S. judge has pressed the Trump administration about its basis for barring Venezuela’s government from paying former President Nicolás Maduro’s legal fees in his drug trafficking case.

The lawyer for deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has asked a judge to toss out the indictment against his client on the grounds that the United States has violated his rights to defend himself by blocking funds to pay his legal costs.

The lawyer for deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro says the United States is blocking funding for the cost of defending himself against drug trafficking charges.

Nicolás Maduro’s first court hearing — a heavily secured spectacle where he proclaimed he is still Venezuela’s president and pleaded “soy inocente” — was merely the beginning of a legal odyssey that could keep him locked up and out of power for years, maybe even the rest of his life.

Stella Assange has thanked the spectrum of lawmakers who campaigned for her husband, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to be freed.