Maduro Hires Reagan-Era Lawyer: D.C.'s Revolving Door Always Greased for Dictators
Bloomberg breathlessly reports that Nicolas Maduro has retained Bruce Fein, a Reagan-era DOJ lawyer, for his legal team. The irony of a U.S. media outlet framing this as unusual, while Washington's political and legal 'experts' cycle through foreign lobbying gigs like it's a buffet, is frankly stunning. America's defense establishment has a long, storied tradition of offering its services to
regimes across the globe, especially those targeted by U.S. sanctions after their usefulness expires. (Remember Oliver North, a Reagan-era NSC staffer, who helped illegally funnel arms to Iran and fund Contras? Good times.) The real scandal isn't who Maduro hired, but the implicit double standard: powerful U.S. figures getting rich off, and legitimizing, foreign entities we then condemn. Fein, for
one, has a history of defending controversial figures, including Sudan's Omar al-Bashir. So, a former U.S. official defending a sanctioned leader isn't an anomaly; it's practically a Washington rite of passage. One might wonder if the concern is about the legal counsel itself, or simply who's hiring it this time. The hypocrisy drips, but at least the billable hours are safe.