One of El Chapo’s defense attorneys, Jeffrey Lichtman, said this trial was “not justice.” He said to reporters outside the courthouse following Guzman’s sentencing that his client behaved like a gentleman, and that he respects the American justice system.
“All he wanted, and he said to me from day one, ‘I just want a fair trial. You tell me that I can get justice here, I just want a fair trial.’ And at the end of the day, we like to pretend that it was justice—it was not justice. You can’t have a situation where jurors are running around lying, lying to a judge, lying to a judge about what they were doing and learning about allegations that were purposely kept out by the government,” he said.
Lichtman said the trial, and the $12.6 billion El Chapo is required to forfeit, is all part of a show.
“It’s a fiction. It’s part of the show trial that we’re here for,” Lichtman said. “They’ve been looking for his assets for how long, decades?”
When Lichtman was asked about supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado where Guzman is expected to spend the rest of his life, he said, “You can bury Joaquin Guzman under tons of steel in Colorado, and make him disappear, but you’re never going to remove the stink from this verdict due to the failure to order a hearing on the misconduct of the jury in this case”.
More context: The identities of the jurors who decided El Chapo’s fate have remained anonymous for their own safety. But shortly after the verdict, one juror spoke to Vice News anonymously and alleged a wide range of possible juror misconduct, ranging from following news reports about the trial, which was expressly forbidden, to lying to Judge Cogan about whether they’d been exposed to certain media reports.
Cogan denied Guzman’s request for a new trial and a hearing to investigate the claims.
