Peña and Calderón allegedly received millions from drug cartel

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The Sinaloa cartel allegedly bribed Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto and former President, Felipe Calderón , claimed Jeffrey Lichtman , Joaquín Chapo Guzmán 's lawyer, before the jury during the drug lord 's trial .

Felipe Calderón

quickly denied the accusations through his Twitter account:

Son absolutamente falsas y temerarias las afirmaciones que se dice realizó el abogado de Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán. Ni él, ni el cártel de Sinaloa ni ningún otro realizó pagos a mi persona.
— Felipe Calderón (@FelipeCalderon) November 13, 2018

"The claims made by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's lawyer are absolutely false and reckless. Nor he, nor the Sinaloa cartel, or any other (cartel) ever paid me."

Enrique Peña Nieto

has made no comments, but his spokesperson posted a message on Twitter , denying the claims:

El gobierno de @EPN persiguió, capturó y extraditó al criminal Joaquín Guzmán Loera. Las afirmaciones atribuidas a su abogado son completamente falsas y difamatorias
— Eduardo Sánchez H. (@ESanchezHdz) November 13, 2018

"@EPN's government chased, captured, and extradited the criminal Joaquín Guzmán Loera. The claims attributed to his lawyer are completely false and defamatory."

Lichtman

also claimed that the true Sinaloa Cartel leader in his co-defendant, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada , who is at large, and who was paid “the current and previous Mexican President millions of dollars in bribes .”

His lawyers' strategy is to claim El Chapo is only a middle-ranking member of the criminal organization , commanded by El Mayo Zambada . They also describe El Chapo as a “ mythological figure ” used by the Mexican government as a “ scapegoat ” in the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo.