The government will have to navigate difficult legal issues and use testimony about incidents clouded by time. But conspiracy laws are powerful tools for prosecutors.
The two key charges in New York against Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, accuse him of interlocking conspiracies: one to commit narco-terrorism and the other to import cocaine.
Disputes among lawyers are not exactly rare, but in the case of Mr. Maduro, the captive leader of Venezuela, the stakes are high and the interested parties are many.
The lawyer Barry J. Pollack, left, has argued that he was representing Nicolás Maduro, not a different lawyer who he said had improperly entered the case.
A longtime hairdresser for the New York attorney general has come under scrutiny as the Justice Department’s efforts to charge Ms. James on other fronts falter.
Ms. James, New York’s attorney general, had been seeking to block a Justice Department investigation into her office by challenging the legitimacy of the U.S. attorney, John A. Sarcone III.
The disqualification of John A. Sarcone III from the case is the second time in three months that a judge has found a U.S. attorney to have been illegitimately installed by the Trump administration.
Rank-and-file prosecutors and agents have expressed serious concern that a hobbled work force hurts the government’s ability to identify and stop terrorist plots, cyberattacks, mass violence and fraud.
Across the Justice Department, rank-and-file workers have expressed deep concern that a denigrated, distracted and depleted work force undercuts the government’s ability to identify and stop terrorist plots, cyberattacks, mass violence and fraud, putting the country in a weaker position.