US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who was overseeing the prosecution of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, died on Wednesday at the age of 92, according to court officials. Hellerstein, a longtime federal judge in Manhattan, had served on the federal bench since 1998, when he was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton. His cases over nearly three decades included matters involving President Donald Trump, Maduro and lawsuits connected to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Edward Friedland, district executive for the Southern District of New York federal courts, confirmed Hellerstein's death. No cause of death was immediately provided. Hellerstein was appointed to the federal bench by Clinton in 1998 and moved to senior status in 2011. Before becoming a judge, he served in the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and worked as a Manhattan litigator. Known for his independent approach and strict courtroom discipline, Hellerstein presided over several high-profile cases during his judicial career. The Maduro drug-trafficking case will now be randomly assigned to another federal judge, court spokesperson Friedland said. Hellerstein had been involved in the case long before Maduro was captured in a US military operation in January and transported to New York to face charges. The judge was assigned to an indictment involving a Maduro co-defendant in 2011. Maduro was added to the criminal case in 2020, and prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment against him that was unsealed on January 3. Hellerstein had presided over a hearing in the ongoing narco-terrorism conspiracy prosecution only two weeks before his death. Hellerstein also became known for his rulings in cases involving Trump. He repeatedly rejected the president's attempts to transfer his New York hush-money criminal case to federal court and, in August, denied another effort to move the case and have it dismissed on presidential immunity grounds. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of business fraud in the state court case involving alleged hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. In 2025, Hellerstein issued a sweeping order that effectively halted deportations under the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act in the Southern District of New York. He also ordered Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen released from prison in 2020 after ruling that the government's actions against him were retaliatory and violated his First Amendment rights. Naman is a copy editor at Times Now, with over three years experience in covering US News, politics, global affairs, sports, and other domains. Apart ... View More