The judge denies Ábalos' last-minute request for a change of lawyer: "It's a legal fraud."

MadridTwo days before a new summons to appear before the Supreme Court as a suspect, José Luis Ábalos informed the high court that he was resigning from the lawyer who had defended him until now. Less than 24 hours after announcing his resignation and less than 24 hours after his statement, the former Minister of Transport has requested that the Supreme Court assign him a public defender to assist him this Wednesday. A move that, in the opinion of Leopoldo Puente, the investigating judge in the alleged corruption case, constitutes "legal fraud." In a ruling issued Tuesday, the judge rejected Ábalos' request. The Supreme Court thus does not accept the last-minute resignation from the defense counsel provided by attorney José Anibal Álvarez and will not assign Ábalos a public defender for tomorrow. Puente also maintains the appointment for this Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., which forces the former minister to have to appear with the lawyer he had resigned.

Puente does not see Ábalos's "untimely" resignation as justified and believes that the former minister's objective is to provoke the suspension of his appearance because accepting it at the time he submitted it would leave a postponement as the only option. The judge argues that "it would not be possible in such a short period of time" to assign a public defender and, "even if it were," given the "magnitude and complexity" of the case, he would not have been able to "effectively assist" him tomorrow. The investigating judge also considers that Anibal Álvarez has carried out his duties "in an objectively irreproachable manner." "The right to freely appoint a lawyer cannot be considered unlimited," argues Puente.

Ábalos had assured X in a message that he maintained his intention to testify as a suspect despite the sudden change in defense. Hence the request for a public defender. Although there is a possibility that after hearing him, Puente may choose to send him to prison, as he has already done. with the former socialist number three Santos Cerdán, and the inconvenience this provisional, last-minute change poses to his defense strategy, Ábalos thus refuted speculation about a hypothetical attempt to delay the summons and emphasized that he is "willing to comply" with the appearance. This intention Puente has not believed.

Why was Ábalos left without a lawyer? According to a statement sent to the Supreme Court on Monday, the former Minister of Transport announced in a letter to the Supreme Court that he decided to resign from his former lawyer due to "irreconcilable differences" with him. "Far from being a one-time circumstance, they have become a constant," stated the letter, in which Ábalos explained that he has been forced to "prepare his statement alone." The "irreversible deterioration" of trust between the two is explained by growing disagreements in the defense strategy. For example, Ábalos's lawyer, José Anibal Álvarez, had recommended that he resign from his position as a deputy in the mixed group in Congress to remove himself from the jurisdiction and thus send the case to the National Court. Ábalos rejects this option. Legal sources cited by Efe, however, maintain that the lawyer decided to leave the former minister's defense because he learned that Ábalos held meetings with other lawyers last week without informing him.

The PSOE distances itself

"We expect diligence to uncover the truth as soon as possible and for the courts to decide what they need to decide," responded the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, at a press conference in the lower house. Hours earlier, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, had disassociated the PSOE from the report by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard that led to this new summons for Ábalos. In an interview on Cadena SER, Sánchez reiterated that "there is no evidence of irregular financing" by the Socialists and argued that the only "disagreements" mentioned in the report are related to Ábalos's personal accounts. The former Minister of Transport will have to explain where the 95,000 euros allocated for personal expenses came from, which, according to the UCO, have an opaque origin and were managed by Koldo within the framework of a black accounting system. The following day, it will be the turn of former advisor Koldo García, who is summoned to testify this Thursday at 10:00 a.m.

On the same day that Ábalos is summoned to the Supreme Court, the People's Party (PP) has activated the machinery in the Senate, where it holds an absolute majority, with the appearance before the commission of inquiry into the Koldo (or Ábalos, or Cerdán) case of Carmen Pano, the businesswoman who claimed to have delivered 90,000 euros to the PSOE headquarters on orders. The PP says it has "high expectations" regarding what Pano might say on a day that could complicate Sánchez's prospects, who, an hour before Ábalos's appointment at the Supreme Court, will face questions from Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Santiago Abascal, and Gabriel Rufián in the control session in Congress.