Indictments Aren’t Victory Laps

Trump celebrates Maduro’s capture, but federal court reality looms, constitutional guardrails tighten, and Judge Hellerstein reminds presidents that indictments begin cases, not victories.

Guest article by Michael Cohen. Remember to follow him on Substack for more by clicking here. Michael just hit 500,000 subscribers on YouTube! Subscribe today for free here and let’s keep the momentum going!

Don’t be shocked if this doesn’t go the way Donald Trump is already high-fiving himself over on Truth Social.

On Monday, when Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are wheeled into a federal courtroom in the Southern District of New York, they will do the least cinematic thing imaginable: they will plead not guilty to every single count. No confession. No dramatic collapse. No instant justice montage for Fox News. Just the beginning of a very long, very complicated federal case; one that Trump and his chest-thumping administration appear to fundamentally misunderstand.

I know something about that courtroom. I know something about that judge. And I know something about what happens when prosecutors overestimate theatrics and underestimate the Constitution.

Maduro, improbably, could not have landed in a better courtroom if he spun the wheel himself.

The case is assigned to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a senior U.S. District Judge appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998. A serious jurist. A constitutional hawk. A man with zero patience for executive-branch arrogance masquerading as law enforcement. He’s also the same judge who, in July 2020, looked at what the Trump administration and Bill Barr did to me—remanding me to prison because I planned to publish Disloyal—and called it exactly what it was: retaliation.

Judge Hellerstein ruled that the government violated my First Amendment rights, imposed an unprecedented and unconstitutional gag order, and attempted to silence speech as a condition of release. He said, flatly, that in over two decades on the bench he had never seen conditions like that. Then he ordered my immediate release.

So when I say Judge Hellerstein doesn’t scare easily, I’m not speaking theoretically. I’m speaking from lived experience.

That matters here. Because while the indictment against Maduro reads like a narco-terrorism horror novel—drug trafficking, machine guns, terrorist organizations, decades-long conspiracies—the legal burden remains the same. Evidence. Jurisdiction. Due process. Credibility. And restraint.

Yes, the indictment alleges that Maduro leveraged government power to facilitate cocaine importation, protect violent narco-terrorists, and enrich himself and his family. It accuses him of coordinating with FARC, ELN, Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Zetas. It paints a picture of Venezuela as a cocaine superhighway funneling 200 to 250 tons of drugs annually toward the United States.

But read it carefully; and lawyers will. In many places, the indictment offers thin connective tissue. Passing references. Broad allegations. Assertions of coordination without granular detail. This is not unusual in superseding indictments meant to secure custody and preserve leverage; but it becomes very relevant once discovery begins and motions start flying.

And they will.

Maduro and Flores are charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess the same. If convicted, the sentencing exposure is astronomical; multiple life terms. But convictions are not automatic, no matter how politically satisfying the arrest may be.

There are also serious legal questions hovering around the capture itself. Whether Trump had authority to remove a foreign head of state without congressional authorization. Whether labeling the operation “law enforcement” rather than military withstands scrutiny. Whether holding Maduro and his wife aboard a U.S. Navy vessel before arraignment raises jurisdictional or due-process issues.

Judge Hellerstein will care about those questions. A lot.

He has presided over post-9/11 terrorism cases. He has handled Trump’s own attempts to drag state convictions into federal court. He understands national-security claims; and he also understands when they’re being weaponized.

And let’s talk about the hypocrisy elephant in the room.

Trump invaded Venezuela, effectively or otherwise, to capture a leader accused of drug trafficking and machine-gun conspiracies. Yet he pardoned Honduras’s former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, after Hernández was convicted in Manhattan federal court of conspiring to import over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, using automatic weapons, and working hand-in-glove with traffickers.

A forty-five-year sentence. Gone. Because Trump felt he was treated “unfairly.”

Judges notice that kind of thing; especially a judge like Hellerstein.

So do defense lawyers.

This case will not be decided by press conferences at Mar-a-Lago or chest-thumping rhetoric about “illegitimate rulers.” It will be decided motion by motion, evidentiary hearing by evidentiary hearing, under the watchful eye of a judge who has already demonstrated he will not allow the executive branch to trample constitutional boundaries, no matter how politically popular the target.

Maduro will plead not guilty. His wife will plead not guilty. And then the real work begins.

Trump may have wanted a trophy. What he got instead was Judge Hellerstein.

And trust me; having been on the receiving end of his rulings when the government overreaches, that’s not the outcome this administration thinks it is.

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