Captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro appeared in court on Monday with his wife after the U.S. military staged a raid in Caracas in the early morning hours of Saturday. One exchange during the proceeding was striking enough to prompt a legal expert to say it was "unlike anything I've ever seen."
Outside of the New York courtroom, MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin told host Chris Jansing that at one point during the hearing, Nicolás Maduro faced off against someone sitting in the courtroom.
Toward the end of the hearing, Maduro stood to make his way from the courtroom when a man "sitting in about the third or fourth row" confronted the leader, who was voted out last year.
The man "suddenly stood up and jabbed a finger at him and said what our producer, Kay Guerrero, says in Spanish was, 'You will pay!' At which point Maduro calmly looked at him and said, 'Soy hombre de Dios!' Meaning, 'I am a man of God.' And then said, 'Soy prisionero de guerra.' [Meaning] 'I am a prisoner of war.'"
She said that the exchange between them began to continue before a court officer "jabbed his finger at the guy and said, 'You! Out!'"
Rubin said that the courtroom was filled with federal employees like DEA agents and DOJ lawyers. This man was wearing a suit and looked like any other audience member, she said.
It all occurred while the judge stood up to leave the courtroom, meaning everyone else in the court also stood, and it created confusion as court officers approached the man who "tried to force a confrontation with Maduro," said Rubin.
