Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's trial will be presided over by Jewish Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was also assigned to oversee almost all 9/11 related civil lawsuits, including one in which he encouraged the families of 96 victims who questioned the failures in airline and airport security to take settlement money instead of taking the case to a public trial

According to the New York Times, Judge Hellerstein acknowledged that this resulted in a 'loss of information' to the public. A trial would have exposed a large body of internal documents and depositions to public light before a jury.

One of the victims' families stated that Hellerstein 'gutted the case so that the truth about what led to the events of 9/11 would never be told at trial.'