A judge appeared sympathetic on Thursday to legal arguments that ex-Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cillia Flores should be allowed to use money from the Venezuelan government to fund their defense.
Maduro and Flores's attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the narco-terrorism case against the pair because the US denied them use of the funds for their lawyers due to current sanctions.
Prosecutors argued Maduro plundered Venezuela's wealth and should not be able to use that country's money for legal fees.
The 92-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein, however, noted that the right to defense is paramount, though he said he would not be dismissing the case over the dispute.
He said he would issue a ruling at a later time, including the next court date.
Maduro and Flores were seized by US forces from his compound in Caracas in a dramatic night-time raid on January 3 and were brought to New York to face allegations of weapon and drug offenses, which they deny.
On Thursday, wearing green khaki prison jumpsuits, Maduro and his wife sat quietly with several lawyers in-between them as they listened to a translation of the arguments through headphones.
The mood stood in stark contrast to their first court appearance, when Maduro gave a speech lasting several minutes claiming he had been kidnapped and was innocent. That hearing ended with a man yelling at Maduro from the back of the courtroom.
Because the Maduros and the Venezuelan government are subject to US sanctions, they needed to obtain a license to allow the government to pay their legal fees.
The US Government Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially granted that license, then revoked it.
Prosecutors argued in court that the Maduros should not be able to access Venezuelan government funds over national security concerns and claim they have access to personal funds available to pay for attorneys, which the Maduros deny.
Under US law, Maduro, like every defendant, would be entitled to a court-appointed lawyer if he is unable to afford his own.
Judge Hellerstein appeared to side with Maduro's lawyer Barry Pollock's argument that the unusual case against the former leader, taking place in another country, would be overwhelming for a public defender to take on and would hamper the counsel they provide.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, claimed OFAC was not allowing the Maduros to access Venezuelan government funds because of longstanding sanctions the US has had in place during his regime and because the couple had plundered the wealth of Venezuelans for their own gain.
Judge Hellerstein questioned that logic, saying that because of the Maduros' capture, that foreign policy situation had changed.
We are doing business with Venezuela, he said. Since Maduro's arrest, former Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez has taken power and the country said it has resumed diplomatic ties with the US.
The judge appeared at a loss for how to resolve the issue, since Maduro's legal team was seeking to dismiss the whole case over it.
Prosecutors said that if the judge indicated in a ruling that he was inclined to side with Maduro's lawyers for a request for a dismissal, they could go back to the US government to reconsider releasing the funds.
The US has accused Maduro of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Maduro and his wife have yet to make an application for bail and have been held in Brooklyn's federal Metropolitan Detention Center.
No trial date has been set.
Residents of Caracas, Venezuela's capital, told the BBC they would be watching developments in court closely.
Ana Patricia, a 72-year-old retired lawyer, told the BBC that despite government censorship, everyone is trying to follow the process.
They can control what Venezuelan media publish, but not what is published in the international press.
Regarding Maduro's fate, she said she felt a degree of sympathy: He is a man who had everything but lost it through greed and an inflated ego. I feel sorry for him, because in the end he is a human being, but I hope he receives a life sentence. He has to pay for his crimes.
In western Caracas, Agustina Parra, a 67-year-old retired nurse, told the BBC that she has faith that my President Maduro will be released.
Despite his flaws, he has not been a bad president. He knows he is innocent and he will prove it.
Parra claims that the US government doesn't even know what to accuse him of: They accuse him of drug trafficking, of weapons possession… And I cannot accept the actions of President Trump in Venezuela, in which so many people died.
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