Thread by @alanfeuer

El Chapo arrives at the courthouse for what will likely be his last week of freedom.

Just want to add: Chapo’s obviously not free now. It’s early, sorry...
Better said: his last week before he likely confronts a life sentence in a US federal prison.

A small hiccup has delayed deliberations.
As court convened this AM Judge Cogan held a sidebar to discuss an issue meant "to protect the integrity" of the jury.
Though the sidebar was sealed, it almost certainly related to the explosive allegations below.
nytimes.com/2019/02/02/nyr…

The judge is now speaking to the jurors as a group to see if any were "exposed to the questionable material." If one or more says yes he plans to speak w/them individually w/lawyers from each side should they too want to ask about whether their impartiality was affected.

Oddly the stuff about Chapo's rape of younggirls was unsealed by the judge's own order Friday so it's unclear why he's decided to seal further discussion of the charges. He noted that the jurors have been "fastidious" so far in avoiding media coverage but just wanted to be sure.

Bullet dodged.
The judge is now charging the jury with his instructions. This could take as long as two hours. After that, the jury will formally begin its deliberations.

The charges the jury will consider are pretty complex. 10 counts are named in the indictment. The top count accuses Chapo of being a leader of a continuing criminal enterprise. It has 27 separate sub-violations, mostly big drug deals plus a murder conspiracy.

The jury has to find him guilty of 3 of those violations, decide he committed them in concert with at least 5 other people, was a (not necessarily THE) supervisor of the enterprise and earned substantial income from it.

Somewhat confusingly, 4 of the violations in Count 1 are named again as separate counts in the remaining 9 of the indictment. Those remaining 9 include drug importation, drug distribution and drug trafficking charges; a weapons charge; a money laundering charge.

Complicating matters further: The weapons charge is dependent on the drug charges (because the gun charge accuses Chapo of using firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.) If the jury doesn't find him guilty of any drug charges, they can't consider the weapons charge.

Moreover, Count One (the criminal enterprise charge) has 3 special questions: Did any of the drug-related subviolations involve at least 150 kgs of coke? Did the enterprise earn $10 million + in a 12 month period? Was Chapo a principal leader?

The jury in the El Chapo trial officially got the case for deliberations at 1:05 p.m.
US attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, made a surprise appearance in the courtroom to wish the prosecution team good luck.

Three notes from the Chapo jury already.
The first: "Is a 'drug war' considered part of a drug trafficking crime? (With specific reference to the weapons charge.")

To convict on the weapons charge (in furtherance of drug trafficking), the jury must 1st convict on 1 of the drug charges. They're asking if Chapo's role in drug wars could be a drug charge.

Two options here:
The weapons charge in the 9th of 10 counts. They're either working from simplest to most complicated charges (there was TONS of evidence that Chapo carried guns.) Or, they've already blown through counts 1-8 and are already on 9.

Other two notes less interesting.
2nd: The jurors wanted their own individual verdict sheets.
3rd: They asked when they could get the evidence photos. And asked, "Is ephedrine considered as methamphetamine?"

Day 1 of Chapo jury deliberations have just ended without a verdict.
The jurors will be back tomorrow morning at 9:30 for Day 2...