Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was overseeing deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s trial in New York City, has died at 92, a court spokesman said.
The judge, a Clinton appointee, served on the bench since 1998. He died Wednesday.
Mr. Maduro’s case will be given to another judge in a random selection process.
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Last year, Judge Hellerstein halted the Trump administration’s Alien Enemies Act in the Southern District of New York. The act sought to deport illegal immigrants with little to no due process.
The judge also blocked President Trump’s effort to move his hush-money case involving Stormy Daniels into federal court. Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of business fraud in state court.
Judge Hellerstein was assigned to Mr. Maduro’s case in 2011, years before the U.S. military abducted the leader in January. The case was an indictment of a Maduro co-defendant, and Mr. Maduro was added to the case in 2020, with a superseding indictment being unsealed the day he was taken into custody, Jan. 3.
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