Kerry Johnson

Barry Pollack, a U.S.-based lawyer from Maduro, says the American government has repeatedly granted special permission to people who want to do business in Venezuela.

Those licenses are necessary because of American sanctions.

But Pollack says the Treasury Department has essentially barred Venezuela from paying its former president's legal fees in what he says amounts to an unlawful interference with Maduro's right to counsel.

Under Venezuelan law, that government would cover the president's legal fees, not American taxpayers.

Federal agents and troops seized Maduro in an overnight operation last month from the heart of the Venezuelan capital.

He's pleaded not guilty to narco terror and weapons charges.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

Maureen Comey was abruptly fired by new Justice Department leaders last year.

She never got a reason and later sued, suggesting it may have been because President Trump dislikes her father, former FBI Director Jim Comey.

The younger Comey oversaw some of the biggest cases in the U.S.

Attorney's Office in Manhattan, including the bribery trial of former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.

She served as lead counsel in the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend, who was convicted of conspiring with him to sexually abuse underage girls.

Now Maureen Comey is joining the Patterson-Belnap firm as a partner, where she'll work on high-stakes white-collar cases and complex litigation.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

The president's asking for more than $10 billion because of damage he says he suffered after his tax returns became public in an FBI search for classified papers at Mar-a-Lago.

But legal demands are putting his appointees at the Justice Department on the spot.

Both the attorney general and the deputy AG once served as Trump's personal lawyers.

A spokesperson there says officials follow the guidance of career ethics lawyers.

Most legal claims like these against the government involve crashes of postal trucks or medical malpractice in federal hospitals for veterans.

President Trump's demands for money are many times greater than in those run-of-the-mill cases.