Thread by @alanfeuer

As a Brooklyn jury mulls the fate of El Chapo here's what's likely to happen next w/some of the witnesses who testified against him.
Lawyers in the case of Chapo's mistress, Lucero Sanchez, are expected to file a status report today that may indicate when she'll be sentenced.

Prosecutors will eventually file papers w/sentencing recommendations for other witnesses, including the cartel prince, Vicente Zambada Niebla; Vicente's uncle, Rey Zambada; and Chapo's top aide, Damaso Lopez.
But so far, their dockets don't indicate any (visible) schedules.

One major Chapo witness, the Colombian trafficker Alex Cifuentes, may end up testifying in a new cartel trial against Mikhaylo "Russian Mike" Koretzkyy. That case, based in Manhattan, will touch on the Sinaloa cartel's Canadian operations. Alex was instrumental in those.

As a side note one of Chapo's lawyers, Jeff Lichtman, is representing Russian Mike. Lichtman also repped Edgar Veytia, a former Mexican state attorney general, who pled guilty last month to drug charges in a case handled by some of the Chapo prosecutors.
justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/f…

In other words, should Chapo be convicted there will be other cartel trials and targets. The DEA, in its most recent assessment of the drug trade, named not only the Sinaloa cartel, but a rising power, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as major current threats.

The leader of Jalisco New Generation, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (aka El Mencho), is already facing charges in a 2014 indictment brought in Washington DC. The two prosecutors named on his case file are Andrea Goldbarg and Anthony Nardozzi, both of whom are on the Chapo team.

A personal thing: I may be slightly behind in reporting a verdict today (if there is one.) Judge Cogan plans to freeze the courtroom until the verdict is read in its entirety. People in the overflow room will be able to rush out in the middle. But a story will be posted ASAP.

Chapo jury just sent out a crazy note. The craziest part: seems they want the entirety of the testimony of both Alex and Jorge Cifuentes, two Colombian traffickers close to Chapo. Thats several *days* worth of testimony. The judge is trying to figure out how not to do a readback.

The jury also asked for a phone call in which meth is discussed and for "Rey" Zambada's testimony concerning his own role in buying ingredients for meth production. This interest in meth squares w/their note from yesterday asking about ephedrine, a precursor to meth.

Back to the request for the Cifuentes' testimony:
The judge said he was inclined to simply give jurors the printed pages rather than spending 3 to 5 days--yes, 3 to 5 DAYS--reading back that testimony.
Because that would be nuts.

Oof. The jury has just asked for the full testimony of Juan Aguayo, one if the law enforcement witnesses. The Cifuentes testimony is being prepped for them but sidebars and sustained objections have to be redacted.
This could take a while.

Aguayo was a Border Patrol officer who testified about 400 kgs or so of weed being seized near San Diego and three dudes being arrested after washing up there “wet and sandy” on the beach.
Are the jurors now seeking to substantiate the pot charges too?

No verdict at end of Day 2 of deliberations.
A day and a half of jury talks is no time at all. Still the questions asked and the requests made to re-hear testimony and phone calls suggest the jurors are taking their jobs seriously and diligently going through the evidence.

There was an interesting, if hard-to-read, moment after the note asking for all of Alex and Jorge Cifuentes' testimony was handed up.
Rich Donoghue, the US atty in Brooklyn, came into the courtroom for what at least looked like a serious conversation w/the prosecution team.

Donoghue huddled with the team. It's not known what he said but the huddle took place only moments after the possibility that a multi-day read back of testimony was in the offing. That's not going to happen. But it suggests how seriously the trial team is taking every small turn.