El Chapo loses bid for ‘proof’ he’s a lackey
A judge closed the door Friday on El Chapo’s efforts to get more prosecution evidence suggesting he wasn’t a true drug kingpin.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan denied Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman’s motion, saying he wouldn’t make prosecutors give up extra information related to the summaries they already disclosed that describe Guzman as working for or under other traffickers.
Prosecutors said they turned the information over in an “abundance of caution,” but it doesn’t really help Guzman, 61, beat the charges against him. He was still the longtime leader of the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel, according to them.
Once Guzman’s defense team received the summaries, they pressed for even more and said prosecutors had been holding out on the revelations for a long time, sometimes even years.
But Cogan said Friday “evidence that defendant was less involved in drug trafficking than someone else or was rivals with a drug trafficker does nothing to exculpate him.”
The information could have the opposite effect “insofar as it still places him as a major figure potentially liable for some of the charged conduct,” Cogan wrote.
Ahead of the court ruling, prosecutors acknowledged some of the information “may be considered favorable” to Guzman. But a lot of it was of “marginal use,” they said.
For example, one not-so-hot tip was that Guzman didn’t like sporting a mustache — “although various public photographs and videos over the years have depicted the defendant with a mustache, including those provided to the defendant in discovery in this case.” Guzman is currently clean-shaven. “We’re very disappointed by the ruling,” said Guzman’s lawyer, A. Eduardo Balarezo. “We believe the government is withholding evidence that is relevant to Mr. Guzman’s defense. However, the judge has spoken and all we’re asking for is a fair trial.”
Guzman is slated for trial on numerous drug-trafficking charges in September, and his lawyers want the case moved to Manhattan.
Authorities currently have to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge to shuttle Guzman from his lower Manhattan holding cell to the downtown Brooklyn courthouse. If the trial were held in Manhattan, there would be no traffic spectacles that would slant jurors against Guzman, his lawyers say.
Cogan hasn’t ruled yet on that motion.