ABC contacted Juan Lobato this Sunday morning, November 24, to warn him that the newspaper would publish important information concerning him. The leader of the Madrid socialists summoned Javier Chicote, director of ABC Research and author of the information, and Juan Fernández-Miranda, assistant to the director and who contacted Lobato, at the cafeteria of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, in Madrid, at 4 p.m. “I just sat in the cafeteria inside,” he wrote at 3:44 p.m. They occupied a high table to the right of the entrance, in the space before the stairs leading up to the Circle Room. After the welcome and a brief polite conversation, Fernández-Miranda told him: “Javi needs to tell you something. » “I took him (to the notary) when the question from the Supreme Court (the accusation of Álvaro García Ortiz) came up. who is here, in case one day the emails and WhatsApp start to appear” Juan Lobato “I know the call and the WhatsApp messages that were sent to you on March 14 first thing in the morning – begins Javier Chicote- , what they asked you to do and you didn’t do, and you left a record of it all. This will affect you…” Lobato listens attentively and cannot hide a gesture of deep concern. He says a few first words: “They will think that I passed it on to you, as if it were my operation, that I I conceived.” Lobato continues to acknowledge the facts without making the slightest objection: “I took it (to the notary) when the question of the Supreme Court (the accusation of Álvaro García Ortiz) was raised, c it’s here, in case one day emails and WhatsApps start to appear ”. He stressed that he had gone to the notary “before the Oscars affair was revealed”. on the possibility that Óscar López – current Minister of Digital Transformation and director of Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet at the time of the events of October 14 – replaces him at the head of the Madrid socialists “It will explode on you” “To heal you. “They have the problem,” Juan Fernández-Miranda interjected, and Lobato nodded. “It’s going to blow up on you, that’s why we warned you,” he added. At this point, Lobato asks for the “exact” information that will be obtained. Chicote tells him about the events, how on the night of March 13 several media published that it was false that the Prosecutor’s Office had proposed an agreement. to the couple. by Isabel Díaz Ayuso and that, precisely, the SER channel cited quotes from the email accompanying the confession, but without showing the document in any case. “They contact you early in the morning (from Moncloa), they send you the document so you can get it and you say you won’t get it. Then they tell you that they are going to leak it to “El Plural” and other media. The content was known, but not the document. Lobato intervenes: “Of course, who would have given me the document…” “Moncloa succeeded…” adds Javier Chicote, who asks him a key and direct question: “If something I say is not OK, tell me.” Juan Lobato responds: “That was it, come on…” he says, nodding and confirming all the details of the information. Journalists ask him if he wants to make statements for publication, if he will recognize it or deny it: “I’m not going to say ‘It’s a lie,'” he replies at any point during the meeting. which lasts from 4:00 p.m. to almost 4:30 p.m. this Sunday, the leader of the Madrid socialists denies everything that ABC is going to publish. The PSOE spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly also asks if they are going to say that he went to. the notary to formalize the messages or would they only talk about his conversation with Pilar Sánchez Acera. They inform him that they will publish all the events as they happened and were confirmed by the protagonist himself, including his visit to the notary. Lobato then appears even more worried. At no time during the meeting, which lasts from 4:00 p.m. to almost 4:30 p.m., does the leader of the Madrid socialists deny anything: he confirms it and worries about the political consequences for his case. regional congress, which will take place after the federal this weekend in Seville. He explains that in the face of activism, they will portray him as a traitor and they will nominate an alternative candidate. Then you are asked to send your version to be included in the information. The politician says goodbye to him and the journalists wait for his response. At 8:13 p.m., Lobato wrote to Fernández-Miranda: “I will send you the answer.” This happens a minute later: “I went to the notary when the legal proceedings were opened regarding the emails of Ms. Ayuso’s boyfriend. I wanted to point out that, according to the evidence I have, it is proven, regarding the procedure of the Attorney General’s Office, that neither I nor Pilar Sánchez Acera receive any information from the Prosecutor’s Office, but that this information is already available. the media had it. In times of hoaxes, it is useful to prove the reality of the facts. In all cases, I will take the appropriate steps with the notary office. It is an adulterated version and in a very different tone of the facts that he himself had admitted to journalists four hours earlier and that he is today trying to amplify through his interventions in various media which have contacted.
