Mexican President Sheinbaum sues El Chapo's American lawyer
CHICAGO — The government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is suing El Chapo's American defense lawyer after the attorney cast doubts on her efforts to fight corruption and cartels.
Sheinbaum told reporters in Mexico on July 15 that the country is suing Jeffrey Lichtman, a New York-based litigator best known for defending Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and his sons, Ovidio Guzmán López and Joaquín Guzmán López. The defamation lawsuit comes in response to comments by Lichtman indicating that his Sinaloa Cartel clients could shed light on public corruption in Mexico connected to Sheinbaum's Morena political party.
"Moral and political authority is required to govern Mexico, and to be worthy of our people. So, the certainty of that authority — my history speaks for me," Sheinbaum said. The agency that filed the suit is the Legal Counsel of the Federal Executive, or Consejero Jurídico del Ejecutivo Federal in Spanish, she said.
Lichtman's remarks on Sheinbaum and other Mexican administrations came outside federal court in Chicago, where he was representing El Chapo's son Ovidio Guzmán López. In exchange for pleading guilty on charges including international drug trafficking and murder, Guzmán López is expected to cooperate with American authorities fighting cartels, including by sharing information on corrupt public officials.
The longtime litigator mocked the Mexican president's response.
"If this was anything more than political grandstanding to her base, Sheinbaum would sue me, a private American citizen, in an American courtroom instead of in Mexico where the lawsuit has no teeth," Lichtman told USA TODAY. "Why she felt the need to spend days denouncing me in part for representing clients charged with crimes, instead of addressing the many difficult issues her country faces is frightening — and very telling."
Officials at the Mexican embassy in Washington, D.C., did not provide a copy of the lawsuit.
What impact will the lawsuit have?
Mexico's efforts to sue a private citizen in another country mark a rare if not unprecedented move, according to experts following the case. One Mexican scholar called it a "spectacle" that might wind up hurting Mexico more than the American attorney it's aimed at discrediting.
"This all seems to be a show," Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a George Mason University professor, told USA TODAY. "I do not think she is serious about this. It is just a spectacle … But the Trump administration wins overall and reinforces its false narrative of Mexico being a 'narcostate.'"
President Donald Trump said as recently as July 16 that cartels have tremendous control over Mexico and its politicians. The president's comments came when he signed a bill extending tougher prison sentences for fentanyl trafficking.
Correa-Cabrera, author of Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico, also called Lichtman's comments a "spectacle."
What did Lichtman say?
The comments at the heart of the lawsuit came outside of a federal courtroom in Chicago, where Lichtman was representing El Chapo's son at a guilty plea hearing. Guzmán López is one of the Chapitos, or sons of the drug kingpin who took over the cartel after his arrest and extradition in 2017.
Lichtman was answering questions from reporters in the Dirksen federal courthouse when he criticized Mexican President Sheinbaum for saying that the U.S. was negotiating with terrorists for making a deal with Guzmán López.
"Far be it from me to defend the American government… they're not exactly my friends in these cases," said the lawyer who represented El Chapo in 2018. "That being said, the idea that the American government would include the Mexican government in any kind of American legal decision negotiation is absurd."
Lichtman referenced public corruption cases in Mexico and cartel leaders where he says Mexican authorities "did nothing."
Mexican authorities are essentially at war with cartels in parts of the country and attempts to arrest bosses have led to full-scale battles, including in capturing Guzmán López in 2023.
Lichtman also responded in a post on social media to Sheinbaum's criticisms: "Some free advice: don't discuss my clients in a cheap effort to score political points unless you are prepared for my unfiltered response."
Why is Mexico's Sheinbaum suing?
President Sheinbaum's lawsuit against El Chapo's lawyer might not get anywhere in court but having Lichtman pay a fine might not actually be the goal, according to experts.
"The Mexican government's president speaks to the Mexican citizenry and sends a message of authority, dismissing what the lawyer says," said Jesús Pérez Caballero, a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a college in Tijuana. "It's a way to preemptively quash any future news about the confessions made by detainees like Ovidio Guzmán."
The lawsuit, Pérez Caballero said, is about undermining the credibility Lichtman is building for Guzmán López before his words become considered "common sense."
Ultimately, Mexican authorities fear Guzmán López's account could become the default narrative for U.S. authorities, Pérez Caballero said.
Guzmán López's brother and fellow Chapito Joaquin Guzmán López is also in U.S. custody. American authorities arrested him in El Paso, Texas in July 2024. He has pleaded not guilty in the Northern District of Illinois and is awaiting trial, according to federal officials.
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