What comes next in the Justice Department's case against Maduro

Bail is unlikely. A battle over immunity and the raid’s legality could take years.

- By Micwag. R. S1sak AND LARRY NEUMEISTER

DEMONSTRATORS in Caracas demand the release of Maduro and his wife.

(FEDERICO PARRA AFP/Getty Images)

Nicolás Maduro’s first court hearing in the United States — a spectacle where he proclaimed he is still Venezuela’s president — was merely the beginning of a legal odyssey that could keep him locked up and out of power for years, and potentially even the rest of his life.

The deposed South American leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arraigned Monday on drug trafficking charges, days after U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a stunning middle-of the-night raid.

Both pleaded not guilty.

President Trump's administration has defended the military action as a “surgical law enforcement operation” to apprehend Maduro in a criminal case that U.S. prosecutors first brought six years ago. In court, Maduro called it a kidnapping and declared himself a prisoner of war.

While Venezuela reckons with the geopolitical fallout, Maduro and Flores are locked up in New York City, about 2,100 miles away. Their next court appearance is scheduled for March 17.

Here’s what’s likely to happen next in their legal case:

Requesting bail

It is a long shot, but Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, can ask the judge to release them on bail, which would allow them to await trial at a location other than jail. Neither defendant made that request Monday, but their lawyers suggested they might in the future.

The judge, Alvin Hellerstein, told the lawyers he will welcome requests for bail “whenever, and as often you think it appropriate.”

But that doesn’t mean he would agree to let Maduro and Flores out.