CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors acknowledged for the first time Wednesday they have no direct evidence that a Chicago man accused of putting a bounty on the head of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino is actually in a street gang, let alone a “ranking” member as originally alleged when the high-profile case was filed at the peak of Operation Midway Blitz.

Instead, the upcoming trial of Juan Espinoza Martinez will focus on whether he had an “affinity” for the Latin Kings and that text messages he sent to associates calling for Bovino’s killing were backed by specific knowledge he had of the gang’s activities, prosecutors said at a pretrial hearing in the case.

“The relationship of the defendant to the Latin Kings stems from the language that he used himself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Minje Shin said. “What we must prove is whether (Espinoza Martinez) intended that a murder-for-hire occur. That absolutely bears on whether his relationship with the Latin Kings is real.”

Espinoza Martinez’s attorney, Jonathan Bedi, called that a “big pullback” from the original allegations, and said it was particularly “atrocious” that prosecutors wanted to use the fact that Espinoza Martinez lives in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood — which is known Latin Kings territory — as evidence he’s associated with the gang.

“It’s probably one of the most prejudiced things that I’ve heard a U.S. attorney say,” Bedi told U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow.

But prosecutors said they were not abandoning the argument that Espinoza Martinez was in the gang, saying it could be up to the jury to decide whether there was enough circumstantial evidence to show it.

Another prosecutor on the case, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan, told the judge some of the gang-related evidence came from Espinoza Martinez himself in a post-arrest interview to agents, which so far has not been made public.

“He said the Latin Kings know him, are cool with him, they respect him,” Yonan said. “He’s allowed to come and go in the neighborhood.”

Espinoza Martinez, 37, who has lived in Chicago for years but is not a U.S. citizen, is charged in an indictment with a single count of solicitation of murder for hire, which carries up to 10 years in prison. A jury trial is set to begin before Lefkow on Jan. 20.

The discussion about the gang affiliation allegations came during a final conference over what evidence can be shown to the jury at trial, which is expected to draw national headlines.

Lefkow agreed that allowing evidence that Espinoza Martinez simply lived in a certain gang neighborhood was prejudicial and barred it from trial. She also excluded other evidence that his cousin may have been in the gang years ago, as well as a photo of a gun allegedly found on Espinoza Martinez’s phone after his arrest.

But any statements Espinoza Martinez made himself about his relationship or knowledge of the gang was fair game, the judge said. “I do think that relationships with Latin King members, if you have evidence of that, would be relevant,” she said.

Another photo from Espinoza Martinez’s phone of a different gun, which prosecutors allege the defendant was offering for sale to the informant, also could come in, the judge ruled.

Espinoza Martinez was originally charged in October via criminal complaint, which alleged he was a “ranking” member of the Latin Kings, meaning some sort of leadership position. When the one-page indictment was handed up a few weeks later, however, there was no mention at all of any gang affiliation.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security and Bovino himself have held the case up as a prime example of the violence that immigration officials were facing, including death threats allegedly coming from street gangs and even international cartels.

As the case was nearing trial, the lead prosecutor, Bradley Tucker, abruptly announced he was leaving the U.S. attorney’s office for reasons not publicly explained, the Tribune reported exclusively last month.

According to the charges, Espinoza Martinez told a law enforcement source after an immigration agent shot a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood “that he had dispatched members of the Latin Kings” to the area of 39th and Kedzie in response to the shooting.

A day later, the source showed a screenshot to law enforcement that had been sent to him by Espinoza Martinez depicting a conversation Espinoza Martinez had with an unknown individual, according to the complaint. In that conversation, Espinoza Martinez allegedly said, “lets get some guys out here bro.” The other person wrote back, “Let one of us be in front with the (green gun emoji),” the complaint stated.

The law enforcement source also shared Snapchat messages that Espinoza Martinez had sent him saying, “2k on information when you get him” and “10k if u take him down,” according to the complaint.

The message also stated “LK on him,” which was a reference to the Latin Kings, the complaint alleged.

Included in the message was a photo of Bovino, the Border Patrol “commander at large” who headed up an immigration enforcement surge in California before becoming the public face of Midway Blitz in Chicago.

In the days after Espinoza Martinez’s arrest, Bovino addressed the charges without identifying himself as the target of the alleged plot.

“It’s a war zone out there,” Bovino told Fox News host Sean Hannity about Chicago. “(Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned a bounty on the heads of federal agents. That $2,000 to kidnap, $10,000 to kill senior Border Patrol officials and senior ICE officials here in Chicago. Now, Sean, what happens between the kidnapping and the killing portion? That’s something out of a third-world country. Is this America?”

As the hearing was taking place Wednesday, Bovino was in Minneapolis, where an immigration agent shot and killed a woman in an incident federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.

Espinoza Martinez’s lawyers, meanwhile, have said that not only is he not a high-ranking Latin King, but he has no gang affiliation at all, and no prior criminal history. The father of three and volunteer youth sports coach was arrested at the construction site where he was working long hours to support his family, his relatives and lawyers said.

In court Wednesday, Bedi said that Espinoza Martinez intends to testify in his own defense.

Bedi also asked the judge to bar prosecutors from using the word “hit” during the trial, saying it “brings up a box of Hollywood movies and cartel and mafia” and that it was the government that introduced the “inflammatory language” in questioning Espinoza Martinez after his arrest.

Lefkow agreed that “hit” should not be used because it was ambiguous, but prosecutors could use the term “bounty” when questioning witnesses.

The judge also brought up questioning of potential jurors, which she said could be “pretty dicey” since “Mr. Bovino and his people came in here not that long ago.”

Prosecutors proposed a series of questions about immigration enforcement in order to weed out potential bias. Bedi, however, asked that questions on immigration be limited, saying the case is not a “referendum on Mr. Bovino, however you feel about him.”

Both sides agreed to confer on appropriate questions ahead of jury selection.

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