Opinion ID: 2758672
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Counsel's purported conflict of interest

Text: Rossetti's next argument is even more convoluted. He speculates that the FBI wanted to entrap him in order to gain leverage over his uncle, said by Rossetti to be a person of -15- interest in the investigation of the theft of artworks from the Gardner Museum. To uncover this motive, Rossetti wanted his trial counsel to interview and call as a witness a suspected FBI informant named Richard Chicofsky who, Rossetti suspected, might supply or point to evidence supporting the hypothesized entrapment motive. Rossetti's trial counsel, says Rossetti, failed to do this because, according to Rossetti, counsel had a business relationship with Chicofsky (a deal to split reward money offered by the Gardner Museum). The simple answer to this argument is that, as we observed in deciding the appeal from Turner's conviction, the FBI's possible motive to entrap a person is of no moment in a case such as this one where there is predisposition and no evidence of improper inducement. United States v. Turner, 501 F.3d 59, 74 (1st Cir. 2007). Therefore, even if trial counsel had a conflict that caused him not to pursue the Gardner Museum motive for entrapment theory, the failure to pursue a defense that could not have succeeded could have caused no prejudice. Adding belt-tosuspenders, the district court found that there was no likelihood that Chicofsky would have testified because, among other reasons, when called in proceedings related to Turner's conviction, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. See Rossetti, 2012 WL 37177, at . -16- In sum, we cannot say that there is a reasonable probability that the perceived shortcomings of Rossetti's counsel -- either individually or cumulatively -- affected the result in this case.6 As already discussed, Rossetti's withdrawal theory is implausible, and so too is the notion that any of the tactics Rossetti now says his counsel should have adopted would have strengthened his defense.