Nicolás Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty Thursday to new federal charges they tortured U.S. citizens, expanding a narcoterrorism indictment already filed against the pair.
The former Venezuelan leader and Cilia Flores appeared in a New York City federal courtroom for arraignment on the fresh counts. Each entered a not-guilty plea as prosecutors folded the torture allegations into a superseding indictment.
Those new charges accuse the two of conspiring to commit torture against American citizens. They sit alongside earlier counts of narcoterrorism tied to cocaine trafficking and machine-gun possession.
Washington Examiner reporting described the Thursday appearance and the decision to join the torture claims with the original case against both defendants.
The same hearing brought sharper courtroom detail. Maduro and Flores faced Judge Alvin Hellerstein after U.S. forces seized them in a palace raid. Both waived a speedy trial and are due back March 17.
Maduro tried to claim he had been kidnapped and still held office. The judge cut him off.
Maduro told the court he rejected every count.
Fox News recorded his words in full.
"I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country."
The not-guilty pleas cover narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and machine-gun and destructive-device charges in addition to the torture counts. Flores entered matching pleas on the related counts against her.
Bail looks remote. Legal observers pointed straight to the Manuel Noriega precedent and saw little path to release.
Philadelphia-area defense attorney David Gelman put the odds in blunt terms.
"I think I have a better chance of winning the next Power Ball."
The torture additions arrived after the initial narcoterrorism filing and turned the case into a single superseding indictment. No victims were named in open court, and the formal charging language stayed at the level of conspiracy to commit torture.
The expanded case tracks the same accountability push that produced the original counts. Coverage of how Trump charges Maduro and wife with ordering torture already laid out the administration’s focus on the couple’s alleged orders and the human cost to Americans.
Maduro’s claim that he remains president collided with the simple fact of his presence in a Manhattan federal dock. Hellerstein gave the outburst no room to run.
U.S. courts have seen other Venezuela-linked prosecutions reach hard endings. One recent example is the former Florida Republican who drew a 10-year sentence for a secret lobbying scheme tied to Caracas.
Neither Maduro nor Flores offered evidence at the arraignment. They simply denied the new torture conspiracy counts and the older drug-and-weapons charges now bound together.
Next steps are set. Both defendants remain in custody. The March 17 return date gives prosecutors time to prepare the full superseding case while the pair sit behind bars.
Foreign-policy fights inside the administration have drawn their own headlines, including moments when Trump backs Hegseth amid larger disputes over force and resources. The Maduro prosecution stays on a separate track: criminal charges, not legislative theater.
The torture counts raise the stakes beyond the original narcoterrorism file. American citizens are named as alleged victims. The superseding indictment now forces the court to weigh both the drug pipeline and the physical abuse claims in one proceeding.
Maduro’s courtroom insistence that he is still president and a “decent man” did not alter the docket. The judge moved past the speech and kept the case on the calendar.
For taxpayers and lawful residents who watched years of Venezuelan chaos spill outward, the federal appearance itself is the point. A leader long accused of wrecking his own country now answers in a U.S. court to charges that he harmed Americans directly.
Dictators who treat American citizens as fair game eventually meet the same system the rest of us live under. The pleas are entered. The trial date will come.
