As the world tunes into the Nicolás Maduro trial, many are unaware that a criminal defense attorney from Texas is playing a key role in the litigation.
Mark Donnelly, a Houston-based criminal defense attorney, was hired to represent Cilia Flores, the wife of ousted-Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, in the couple’s narco-terrorism case.
In courtroom sketches from Maduro and Flores’ first court appearance before a New York federal judge on January 5, Donnelly was placed directly between the couple.
This case follows closely on the heels of another high-profile case for Donnelly, who took part in the 2023 impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Background
Donnelly is a graduate of the South Texas College of Law in Houston. He went to work as an assistant district attorney for Harris County. Donnelly is reportedly a proficient Spanish speaker and was designated as a bilingual assistance prosecutor.
Around March 2009, he was reportedly reprimanded by Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, for his handling of jury selection in the case of Ricky Whitfield, a black defendant charged with murder. Donnelly, alongside another prosecutor, used seven of their 10 jury strikes to remove seven black people from the jury pool—resulting in an all-white jury.
Whitfield’s attorneys then filed a motion for the court to determine whether Donnelly’s use of jury strikes constituted intentional racial discrimination. Donnelly argued that the black prospective jurors were eliminated because they were “indecisive about whether the criminal justice system should punish or rehabilitate [and] they didn’t want indecision in the jury room.”
District Judge Jeannine Barr did not buy this argument and decided to grant the motion, dismissing the selected jury.
Lykos was not happy with this development, finding Donnelly “negligent and incompetent” for allowing such a result to occur. She reportedly docked his pay and removed him from all trial work.
In November 2009, Donnelly was hired by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as an assistant U.S. attorney (AUSA). He worked there for 12 years, spanning three administrations. Incoming presidents typically change only the top U.S. attorneys, leaving AUSAs safe from mass partisan political firings.
In February 2021 under the Biden administration, Donnelly was promoted to senior advisor to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, what is considered a prolific office.
“In that role, Mark either directly handled or supervised every manner of action brought by the federal prosecutor’s office,” reads Donnelly’s profile. “Mark had regular contact with high-level justice department leaders and often handled cases jointly with DOJ prosecutors in Washington, D.C.”
Donnelly left the DOJ in February 2022. He returned to Harris County as an attorney for the Parker Sanchez & Donnelly law firm in Houston, which is home to the third-largest population of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S.
In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives hired Donnelly to assist in the investigation and impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton over abuse of office allegations. Despite Donnelly’s efforts, Paxton was acquitted by the Texas Senate and reinstated as attorney general.
The state auditor’s office later estimated Paxton’s impeachment proceedings cost taxpayers over $5.1 million.
Following his acquittal, Paxton was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on X about the impeachment investigation. Carlson labeled Paxton the “most aggressive legal opponent to the Biden administration in the United States.”
Paxton stated in the interview, “We were causing a lot of trouble for the Biden administration even if we didn’t win, we slowed them down. We were winning 77% of our cases, so we were a huge problem for the Biden administration, and that was the way to get me out of the way.”
He explained that the House General Investigating Committee “were the ones who investigated me, and they hired, I think four lawyers, two of them came from the Biden DOJ, that’s not an accident, they were sent there.”
The two DOJ lawyers were Donnelly and Erin Epley, who directed the investigation. There were three other attorneys on the team—Terese Buess, Donna Cameron, and Brian Benken. All five were reportedly recruited by now-former State Rep. Andrew Murr (R–Junction) and State Rep. Ann Johnson (D–Houston), then chair and vice chair of the House General Investigating Committee.
Operation Absolute Resolve
During Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3, Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, were seized at their compound in Caracas, Venezuela. The couple was reportedly captured while trying to enter a safe room, but Maduro was unable to close the door in time.
The State Department had federal warrants out for their arrests following a March 2020 narco-terrorism indictment from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
The indictment offers a narrative that Maduro used his “illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.” It also claimed Flores is involved in her husband’s alleged crimes.
Flores is accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, Nestor Reverol Torres.”
“The drug trafficker later arranged to pay a monthly bribe to Reverol Torres, in addition to approximately $100,000 for each flight that was transporting cocaine to ensure the flight’s safe passage, a portion of which was then paid to [Flores],” the indictment continued.
SDNY was the first jurisdiction to indict Maduro and is considered to be a venue particularly suited for such a trial. More than any other prosecutor’s office in the nation, the SDNY reportedly “has the historical chops to handle a massive narco-terrorism case against a former president of a sovereign nation.”
Federal law requires the prosecution of a crime committed abroad to occur wherever the defendant “is first brought.” This is why Maduro was flown directly to Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, which is within the jurisdiction of the SDNY.
The couple made their first court appearance on January 5, where they both pleaded not guilty.
According to Donnelly, Flores suffered “significant injuries” during the raid. She reportedly appeared in court with two bandages on her face and was complaining of a fractured rib. He is requesting that she receive an X-ray.
Donnelly was depicted in courtroom sketches between Maduro and Flores. Attorney Andres Sanchez, appearing as co-counsel from the same Houston law firm, was seen seated on the other side of Flores.
Sanchez has extensive experience in foreign litigation. Immediately following law school, he worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, alongside a Croatian legal team representing a client accused of war crimes.
According to his biography, Sanchez “is also comfortable working abroad. A number of his clients often need assistance with legal matters in foreign jurisdictions, relying on his experience representing clients through extraditions, international investigations and foreign depositions.”
What Happens Next
The case is now expected to move into a long pretrial phase focused on Maduro’s challenges to jurisdiction, his capture, and his immunity, before any full-blown trial on the drug and narco‑terrorism charges occurs.
Barry Pollack, the Washington D.C.-based criminal defense attorney representing Maduro himself, is a lifelong Democrat donor.
The next court date is set for March 17.
Donnelly and Sanchez did not respond to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment in time for publication.
If you or anyone you know has information regarding court cases, please contact our tip line: scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
