Normally, when they are involved in a high profile case involving federal setup and the accused is the one who is wanted in many cases and involved something related to drugs defense attorneys never try to rebuke or anger the judges. It is the least thing they would like to do in their opening statement. As they say first impression is the best impression, if they speak something to make the judge angry then the chances of judgment favoring them is very slim. But with the Jeffrey Lichtman Lawyer these things are normal. He is not the regular defense attorney who is happy to tag along the lines of judges. But the one who takes on the government cases to make their clients walk freely when the trial ends. This is what exactly happened in the case of el-chapo. His opening statement was the one which nobody expected to come out in defense of the client.
Accusations that startled the judge
In his opening statement in defense of El Chapo, the famour attorney claimed that El Chapo is not the leader of the cartel which smuggled tons of drugs in the United States and claimed another person who is yet to be traced is the real leader and he accused the person who is the real leader of the drug cartel has bribed all the way up to the top reaching the president to keep himself safe while the other person was put behind bars for the crime he did not commit.
This open accusation of other countries top heads has made the judge angry and said he is making baseless allegations without proper evidence while the federal prosecutors wanted the judges to throw the opening statement out of the books. But the defense lawyer not worried and claimed his client never ran away and in fact enjoyed the publicity very much. Also, he claimed agents who arrested El Chapo got his autograph in hundred dollar bill during the arrest.
He has seen this much before in the cases where he represented some of mobs bosses and ensured they walked free of all the charges. This is the talent he born with. The knack of hitting weak areas of prosecution where it will hurt and win the case is not the one who can learn easily. It must be practiced and one should be ruthless in the arguments and statements they make before judges. It is always important to win over the judges but for that reason you don’t need to tag along the way judges see. You need to build a strong defense which will be tough to break in by the opposition.