Two separate “El Chapo” trials are taking place, side by side, in federal court in Brooklyn, reports the New York Times. The U.S. is prosecuting Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who is accused of being one of the world’s biggest drug dealers. Prosecutors say he earned as much as $14 billion as head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. At a second “trial,” Guzmán’s lawyers are, in essence, prosecuting the government of Mexico. They say the country’s police and politicians have conspired for years with Guzmán’s partner, Ismael Zambada García, to target El Chapo in exchange for a flood of bribes. Given the sensitivities involved and the enormous news media attention, Judge Brian Cogan has conducted much of the proceedings in secret.
Last week, the judge held a sidebar conversation with the defense and prosecution to discuss whether Guzmán’s lawyers should be allowed to pursue claims that Zambada was the real mastermind of the cartel. The defense informed the judge that witness Jesus Zambada García, Zambada’s brother, would testify that he had once been ordered by his brother to bribe the “now incumbent” president of Mexico. In court, Zambada confessed to startling crimes but never mentioned bribing a Mexican president. Then the government filed a mysterious memo “to preclude cross-examination.” Cogan discussed the secret memo at a second sidebar conference conducted in secret. The judge later said he would limit the questions that Guzmán’s lawyers could ask Zambada on cross-examination. He also said that whatever might be learned from a broader line of inquiry did not outweigh “protecting individuals and entities” who were not directly involved in the case and “who would face embarrassment” if Zambada were allowed to testify without restraint.