NEW YORK _ Brooklyn federal prosecutors have found a rare point of agreement with lawyers for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman _ nobody's interested in calling actor Sean Penn as a witness in the Mexican druglord's upcoming trial.
But the harmony stops there.
The two sides are battling over a host of other issues as the September trial date for Guzman approaches _ including details about his police escort to court over the Brooklyn Bridge.
In court papers filed Tuesday in Guzman's trafficking and conspiracy charges, his lawyers said they don't plan on calling Penn as a witness.
In 2016 the actor wrote an article for Rolling Stone magazine about a secret interview he got with Guzman shortly after the drug kingpin's second breakout from a maximum security prison.
Prosecutors had argued against submitting it as evidence or having the defense call Penn as a witness _ claiming it gave Guzman's history an "exculpatory gloss."
Once the defense said it doesn't "presently intend to call Sean Penn as a witness," the legal dueling moved on to El Chapo's morning commute to court and the trial location.
Guzman's lead defense attorney, A. Eduardo Balarezo, tried to get the case moved to Philadelphia _ or at least to a federal court in Manhattan.
Balarezo argued that it would be too prejudicial to the jury to see a phalanx of police escorting Guzman from his lower Manhattan cell to Brooklyn for his trial every day _ a process that would involve closing the Brooklyn Bridge while he is transported for security reasons.
The motorcade would signal "dangerous man inside," Balarezo insisted.
Law enforcement currently holds back traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge on the days Guzman makes a predawn trek to Brooklyn court for hearings.
In a nod to Guzman's history of high-risk prison breaks, cops keep all traffic at bay until the Sinaloa drug cartel honcho's police caravan is at least halfway across the iconic span.
Such extreme precautions have only been taken a few times in the past, officials said, mostly for terrorism cases.
Prosecution lawyers said Balarezo's arguments were pure balderdash.
The Brooklyn-based jury chosen to hear Guzman's case won't be crossing the bridge to get to the court, prosecutors said.
And the anonymous jurors _ who will be escorted by police _ will arrive at different times than Guzman to prevent them from seeing his caravan, the lawyers added.
