Ex-Justice Department Official Denied Bid to Represent Maduro

A request to join Nicolas Maduro’slegal team by a former top Justice Department official was rejected by a federal judge amid a fight with the ousted Venezuelan president’s current lawyer.

US Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official during the Reagan administration and prominent constitutional scholar, couldn’t “appoint himself” to be Maduro’s lawyer.

Maduro was represented by Barry Pollack, a veteran Washington defense lawyer whose former clients include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, at his first court hearing on Jan. 5. Pollack objected to Fein’s request last week, saying that no one acting ...