The prosecution of Venezuelas Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami for violating U.S. sanctions has run into another snag after a federal judge allowed one of his co-defendants to withdraw a guilty plea over allegations that U.S. attorneys withheld evidence in the case.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Monday said they dont object to Victor Mones withdrawing his guilty plea, but refused to concede they violated rules requiring them to turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defendant.
Mones, a Florida-based businessman, pleaded guilty almost a year ago to arranging chartered flights to Russia and elsewhere for El Aissami and his alleged frontman, Venezuelan businessman Samark Lopez.
But a year later, prosecutors in the case have yet to finish handing over abundant evidence, something that Judge Alvin Hellerstein said concerns him.
Obviously this late production by the government is a…