Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is due back before a Manhattan court where he will argue that drug trafficking charges against him should be thrown out more than two months after he and his wife were captured in a surprise US military raid in Caracas.
Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been embroiled in a dispute over US sanctions that prevent the Venezuelan government from paying for the couple's legal defence.
They have each pleaded not guilty to charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy and are jailed in Brooklyn pending trial.
They have asked US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the charges, saying their inability to rely on Venezuelan public funds is interfering with their right to have a lawyer of their choosing under the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution.
Their lawyers have said their clients cannot afford to pay their defence fees on their own.
Mr Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has said he wants to withdraw from the case if Judge Hellerstein does not dismiss the charges and the Venezuelan government cannot pay his fees.
It was unclear how much Mr Pollack is charging Mr Maduro for his services.
US special forces captured Mr Maduro and his wife on 3 January during a raid on their Caracas residence and flew them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
For their previous court appearance in January, a helicopter brought the couple from the jail into Manhattan.
Mr Maduro and his wife, who will also be in court, say that under Venezuelan law and custom, the government pays the expenses of the president and first lady.
Prosecutors argue that because the US has not recognised Mr Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president since 2019, he and Ms Flores should not expect the US government to allow Venezuela to pay their legal fees. The prosecutors say Mr Maduro and Ms Flores can be assigned public defenders if they cannot afford their own lawyers.
Mr Maduro faces four felony charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy, which criminalises drug trafficking to help finance activities the United States considers terrorism. The statute has rarely been tested at trial, and two of three trial convictions have been overturned over issues stemming from witness credibility, a Reuters analysis of court records found.
During his first term in the White House, President Donald Trump ramped up sanctions on Venezuela over allegations that Mr Maduro's government was corrupt and undermining democratic institutions.
Washington called Mr Maduro's 2018 reelection fraudulent.
Mr Maduro dismissed those accusations, along with allegations of his participation in drug trafficking, as pretextual justifications for what he called a US desire to seize control of the South American OPEC nation's vast oil reserves.
Relations between Venezuela and the US have improved since Delcy Rodriguez, Mr Maduro's former vice president, became interim president after his capture.
