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Criminal case against ex Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro He is about to go on trial against a veteran U.S. federal judge known for his independence and unconventional courtroom style.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, a Manhattan judge appointed during the Bill Clinton era to oversee Maduro goes on trial on Monday is expected to preside over any trial of the ousted leader.
Former federal prosecutors familiar with Hellerstein said he was guided by his own judgment rather than convention.
“He was just old-school, old-school, doing things his way and didn’t care what anyone thought of him,” one former prosecutor told reporters. politics, The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the judges they might appear before in the future.
Another former federal prosecutor added: “He tried very hard to do the right thing. [He] He just has his own feelings. “
Hellerstein, a jurist known for overseeing some of the nation’s most sensitive national security and terrorism-related cases, has been at the center of the U.S. legal system for decades.
The veteran is a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, one of the busiest and most influential trial courts in the country.
Hellerstein, who was appointed by Clinton in 1998, took the senior post in 2011 and continues to handle high-profile cases that often test the limits of executive power and constitutional protections.
Hellerstein was born and raised in New York and graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He began his legal career as a clerk for Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a position that led him to participate in landmark civil liberties debates in the 1960s.
Before joining the bench, Hellerstein spent more than thirty years in private practice in New York, where he earned a reputation as a formidable litigator in complex commercial and constitutional disputes.
On the bench, Hellerstein is best known for presiding over cases stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including civil lawsuits brought by the victims’ families.
He also played a key role in habeas corpus challenges brought by detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, issuing rulings that reviewed the government’s evidence and procedures.
Hellerstein refused many times President Donald Trump’s An effort to move the New York hush-money case involving former adult star Stormy Daniels to federal court has criticized the government’s argument that the case involves official actions taken while he was president.
A New York City jury convicted Trump in the case, which focused on repaying a payment made to Trump by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, shortly before the 2016 election. Daniels.
Hellerstein said in an earlier ruling that the actions fell outside Trump’s constitutional duties as president.
“Reimbursement of hush money payments Cohen made to Stephanie Clifford cannot be viewed as fulfilling a constitutional obligation,” Hellerstein wrote, adding that falsifying business records to conceal the reimbursements was also unrelated to any presidential function.
The judge also presided over a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union last year challenging the deportation of two Venezuelan nationals.
In this case, Hellerstein issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the affected individuals from being deported from the Southern District of New York until subject to due process.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two Venezuelans, challenges the government’s use of the Foreign Enemy Act to deport individuals accused of gang affiliation. Enacted in 1798, this law allows the U.S. government to detain or deport persons from countries deemed hostile to the United States during war.