The Supreme Court agrees to investigate Attorney General García Ortiz for revealing confidential data about Ayuso’s boyfriend

This is the this is the first time that criminal proceedings have been initiated against a public prosecutor of the state. The decision has been made unanimously by the President of the Chamber, Manuel Marchena, and Judges Juan Ramón Berdugo, Antonio del Moral, Carmen Lamela and Suzanne Polothe latter rapporteur of the resolution.

With the “full support” of the government, García Ortiz has ruled out resigning “in the conviction that the continuity of the mandate is the least burdensome and most prudent for the institution in the medium and long term.”

The Supreme Court’s decision comes after the filing of two complaints from the Foro Libertad y Alternativa Foundation and the Manos Liminas union and the filing of a presentation by the magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid Francisco José Goyena, who investigated a complaint from González Amador and a complaint from the Madrid Bar Association.

The TSJM investigation focused on a informative note published by the Office of the Prosecutor Provincial Council of Madrid on March 14 to face false news from some media, according to which the Public Ministry had proposed a criminal compliance agreement to González Amador and then removed him “by order from above” to bring him to justice.

The reality is that the agreement was proposed to the public prosecutor’s office by González Amador’s lawyer in an email in which it was alleged that the businessman had committed two tax crimes.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has always maintained the criminal uselessness of this informative note – of which García Ortiz assumed the dissemination in the first person -, among other reasons because The data reflected in the press release had already been disseminated by the press.

The investigating judge of the Superior Court of Madrid, however, saw in this declaration indications of the crime of revealing secrets. informative. “It contains an exhaustive, careful and detailed account, description and sequence of the facts, data and circumstances relating to the investigative procedure opened by the Economic Crimes Section of the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. [contra la pareja de Díaz Ayuso]”, internal conversations between the prosecutor in charge of the case and the plaintiff’s defense, the result of which leads to the presentation of a complaint by the prosecution and the proposal of an agreement”, information which according to Goyena, ” cannot be disclosed to third parties.

Defense emails

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court appears to exclude Goyena. After referring to the numerous data published by the media on the investigation carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Tax Administration on Díaz Ayuso’s friend, the Superior Court states that “apparently, no information was inappropriately disclosed, given public knowledge of the facts“.

The Supreme Court focuses on something the TSJM instructor didn’t even mention in the exhibition in which he clarified the criminal signs that he had seen in García Ortiz: the diffusion of emails that González Amador’s defense exchanged with the prosecutor who wrote the complaint against him, Julián Salto. The initiative for this exchange of messages came from the businessman’s defender, who proposed reaching an agreement on the penalty assuming the commission of tax crimes by Ayuso’s partner.

The TSJM instructor did not investigate these emails, even though, in several writings, the prosecution stated that before the public prosecutor’s note, some media that disseminated these messages cited the origin of the news as “sources close to the defense”.

The Supreme Court resolution interprets that Goyena, after receiving a letter on June 11 from García Ortiz assuming responsibility for the informative note, “ceases to practice the educational activity, which therefore remained unfinished in terms of relevant aspects and necessary to evaluate” the revelation of secrets.

“More precisely,” he adds regarding the subject of the trial now open before the High Court, “how the media gained access to the emailsa few hours before to make public the information note, while they were in the possession of the Attorney General of the State and the Attorney General of the Province, sent by Attorney Salto from March 13 at 10 p.m., and that They had them at their disposal to prepare and agree on the file. informative note”.

“Qualified” signs

Although, to open a file to a certified person, the Supreme Court required “solid indications of responsibility” or “nuanced indications” (“any suspicion or conjecture is not enough”, “the possibilities are not sufficient”, she declared), the resolution by which grants the status of investigator to the Attorney General does not mention any other evidence against him than the simple possession of the emails electronics which the diffusion believes necessary to investigate.

Access to the emails, however, was not limited to García Ortiz and Pilar Rodríguez, who requested them from Salto under article 25 of the tax code (“Members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office will inform the Attorney General of the State of facts relating to his mission which because of its importance or its transcendence he must know).

In addition to them, other authorities had access to the emails – such as the main prosecutor, Almudena Lastra, excluded from the case opened by the Supreme Court – and, of course, the defense of González Amador and his entourage.

The Attorney General of the province of Madrid, Pilar Rodríguez, will be investigated along with García Ortiz. Although it does not have certified status, the resolution explains that the two behaviors – that of the Attorney General and his own – have an inseparable link that prevents the opening of separate trials.

The person in charge of the case will be the magistrate of the Criminal Chamber Angel Hurtado.