Did Sean Penn Do Anything Wrong In Meeting With Fugitive Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman?

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Publish Date:
January 10, 2016
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Los Angeles Times
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Summary

Actor Sean Penn’s clandestine visit with a notorious drug kingpin in the Mexican jungle last fall for a Rolling Stone magazine interview has raised some journalistic questions but is unlikely to land him in criminal trouble in the U.S., experts said Sunday.

Legal scholars said Penn didn’t have to tell law enforcement about his October meeting with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was on the run after escaping from Mexico’s maximum-security prison a few months earlier.

“He’s under no obligation to inform the authorities that he’s been in touch with El Chapo,” said Robert Weisberg, a professor at Stanford Law School.

In order to charge Penn as a so-called accessory after the fact, prosecutors would have to show that the actor did more than just meet with Guzman — such as, Weisberg said, offering the fugitive advice on how to avoid detection.

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