He knew he never had a chance.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman “fully expected” to be convicted of running a sprawling drug-trafficking empire, his attorney said Wednesday.
“I think he fully expected this,” lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said on CNN’s “New Day” a day after a Brooklyn jury found Guzman guilty of running the bloodthirsty Sinaloa drug cartel. “This case was impossible to win. I think he was convicted even before he came to America.”
Lichtman, a New York-based lawyer who was part of the diminutive Mexican drug lord’s legal team, said once the verdict was announced, Guzman remained positive.
“He said, ‘Just keep fighting. I’m not going to give up, you don’t give up,'” Lichtman said.
The lawyer went on the morning talk show circuit, where he blamed the media for perpetuating the “myth of El Chapo.”
“I don’t think he got a fair trial. The press has to do its job but the press was overwhelmingly negative before the jury was even picked,” Lichtman told CBS’ “This Morning” earlier Wednesday.
“We were presumed guilty. It was very difficult to get around the myth of El Chapo.”
He also claimed that the defense was limited in its questioning of a slew of cooperating witnesses who testified against Guzman.
“The cross-examinations were so restrictive — so restrictive, I don’t believe the jury ever really heard the full truth about these cooperators,” he said.
Grilled about why the world-famous cartel chief didn’t take the stand in his own defense, Lichtman admitted that it would’ve opened up a can of worms.
“It’s very rare in a criminal case where a defendant takes the stand and they had a tremendous amount of material to cross-examine him on, had we put him on the stand,” the lawyer said. “And my belief was, if we had any chance to win the case, we’ll lose it if he takes the stand.”
During the epic 11-week trial, jurors saw and heard a mountain of evidence against Guzman, including testimony that detailed how the 61-year-old tortured and murdered rivals and his two infamous escapes from Mexican prisons.
On Tuesday, Guzman, whose nickname means “Shorty,” was convicted on all 10 counts charging him as the chief of a massive operation that pumped billions of dollars of narcotics into the US. He now faces life in a maximum-security federal prison.
Lichtman also defended his previous comments that Guzman was a “cool cat.”
“Being a cool cat and a pleasure to represent does not make him a good person,” he explained. “He was good to me. As a defense lawyer, if I start being concerned with what people are accused of and what they’re convicted of, I’ll never be able to get out of bed in the morning.”