A prosecutor implicates Pedro Sánchez in the operation to "clean up" the state's sewers.

MadridPedro Sánchez is the one who allegedly gave the order to dig up dirt within the Civil Guard and the Prosecutor's Office. Specifically, dirt on those investigating cases surrounding the Spanish president. This is what he conveys to prosecutor Ignacio Stampa in the complaint he filed against former PSOE member Leire Díez and businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, with whom he met on May 7, for alleged bribery. These two individuals allegedly asked him for information about irregularities by Anti-Corruption prosecutors in a meeting that, initially, was intended to convey an apology from the Spanish government for his "unfair" departure from the Public Prosecutor's Office.

"Beyond why they were calling me, when I asked why now, Mr. Pérez Dolset expressed that "when the accusation against Begoña [Gómez] came out, Leire called him because the president had given the order to clean up, without limit," and that "the situation had to be reversed," Stampa recounts in the complaint that he filed on June 3 and to which Europa Press has had access. One A Madrid court has an open case regarding Díez's maneuvers. and those around them to discredit investigators from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and Anti-Corruption prosecutors linked to judicial proceedings affecting the PSOE or victims of former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, such as Dolset himself.

The case was opened following a complaint from the ultra-Catholic organization Hazte Oír when audio recordings were published in which Leire Díez and Pérez Dolset could be heard in a meeting with a businessman indicted by the National Court in a case of fraud in the hydrocarbon sector, the UCO, Antonio Balas. In exchange, they offered him judicial benefits. They used a similar tactic with other people who might have information, such as prosecutors Stampa and José Grinda, who also told his superiors that these individuals approached him demanding dirt on his colleagues, such as the chief prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Office, Alejandro Luzón.

"Coordinated" action to "nullify investigations"

Initially, the presiding judge of Madrid's 9th Court, Arturo Zamarriego, refused to include Stampa and Grinda's complaints in his investigation, but eventually backed down. In a written statement, the Madrid Prosecutor's Office informed him that there was a "criminal, continuous, and coordinated" operation led by Díez and with the participation of Pérez Dolset and journalist Pere Rusiñol—also under investigation—to "nullify or squander" investigations into "relevant cases affecting politicians and businessmen." Prosecutor Pablo Nieto stated in his appeal that the "uniqueness of the alleged bribery offers is based primarily on the supposed appearance that Ms. Leire Díez has managed to create that she speaks on behalf of high-ranking authorities in the State."

In fact, the former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) Santos Cerdán was initially supposed to attend the meeting between Stampa, Díez, and Dolset, according to the prosecutor's complaint. "It was Leire who initially excused Cerdán's absence, stating that he would inform him of everything that was said," Stampa explains. Indeed, the UCO's top official, Rafael Yuste, is expected to be promoted to general in the coming weeks, and the right is already speculating that Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will appoint someone to report to the Spanish government on the progress of the UCO investigations.