The attorney general avoids a political defense and focuses on distancing himself from the leak.

MadridÁlvaro García Ortiz shed the robes of Attorney General he had worn throughout the trial to finally testify as the defendant for an hour and a half. In the fifth session of the oral proceedings at the Supreme Court, García Ortiz underwent a carefully measured cross-examination—answering only questions from his defense and the prosecution—focusing on distancing himself from the leak of the email containing confidential information about Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. The head of the Public Prosecutor's Office avoided a political defense, despite the case's obvious political implications, and also steered clear of direct confrontation with the prosecution, which is seeking up to six years in prison for revealing secrets. He made a special mention of businessman Alberto González Amador, who is acting as a private prosecutor, accusing him of having acted with "disloyalty." "There is no procedural loyalty in the search for the truth," he asserted regarding González Amador's actions from the moment he filed the complaint. According to García Ortiz, it was Ayuso's boyfriend who instigated the "political use" of information regarding his negotiations with the Prosecutor's Office to reach a plea agreement in the tax fraud investigation against him. While García Ortiz has asserted that he acted solely out of a desire to defend the "honor" of the Prosecutor's Office, damaged by insinuations from Ayuso and her associates, the Attorney General has questioned González Amador's intentions when he forwarded a message to the president's right-hand man, Julián Salto, dated March 12, 2024. In that message, he responded to the plea agreement request made by Ayuso's boyfriend's former lawyer, Carlos Neira, in an email dated February 2. This document was allegedly leaked to the Attorney General. García Ortiz has denied this allegation. "I did not send it to anyone outside the Prosecutor's Office," He emphasized.

The Attorney General denied having spoken with the Cadena SER journalist Miguel Ángel Campos, who, also during Wednesday's session, agents from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard identified as responsible for the publication that revealed the secret, given that he was the first to publish "text quotes."I don't take calls [from journalists] "Since I became Attorney General, because I would go crazy. And even less so that night," García Ortiz stated.

The controversial press release

"It was necessary to defend the absolutely impeccable actions of the Public Prosecutor's Office," the Attorney General said to justify his interest in obtaining the emails exchanged between Salto and Neira. García Ortiz explained that Ayuso and her associates tried to "shift the focus somewhat." First, with the Madrid president's statements to the media, in which she attributed the tax fraud investigation to political persecution, and then with the dissemination of an erroneous version, published in The World At 9:29 p.m. on March 13, 2024, and used to launch the idea that the plea agreement was a "bait" designed by the Attorney General to harm the partner of the Madrid president.

García Ortiz has denied having any intention "of harming either her right to defense or her own honor" and has said that he was unaware of this negotiation, which he only learned about that night. It was precisely this lack of prior information, coupled with the desire to protect the reputation of the Prosecutor's Office, that he said led him to obtain the emails in order to prepare a press release refuting the claims. The WorldIn the statement, he defended himself, he treated González Amador's data with "exquisite care".

The opposing view of the UCO

The UCO agents who testified as expert witnesses presented a theory contrary to that of the Attorney General, whom they identified as the source of the leak. According to the Civil Guard investigators, the leaker must necessarily have been someone who knew that this press release was being prepared. Leaking the email so that SER (a Spanish radio network) could publish verbatim excerpts was, in their view, a way to protect themselves. Since the radio station had already published it, the press release they were drafting ceased to be a crime. García Ortiz rejected this theory—the leak and the drafting of the press release "are two completely different causal chains," he said—and his defense cornered the UCO by questioning why, in their investigation, they did not consider alternative hypotheses to the Attorney General's culpability. State Attorney Consuelo Castro questioned why they overlooked the fact that on the night of the leak, 16 other people had access to the generic email account of the economic crimes prosecutor's office, to which the communication containing confidential information about Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner also arrived. Castro also questioned why the phones of other prosecutors who, like García Ortiz, had access to the email while knowing that a press release was being prepared, such as the prosecutor in the case, Julián Salto, and the chief prosecutor of Madrid, Almudena Lastra, were not analyzed. The response from the UCO agents was that, from the outset, they had "sufficient circumstantial evidence" against the Attorney General because he was the one who had "control" and "hierarchical authority" over everything that happened in the Public Prosecutor's Office. Regarding Lastra, who also pointed to García Ortiz in her testimony last week, the Attorney General also commented, making it clear that There is an internal war in the Prosecutor's OfficeThe chief prosecutor of Madrid has a "disaffection" towards him, she said.

Deleted messages

Another aspect of García Ortiz's defense was justifying the fact that his devices, when searched by the UCO (Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard), contained no messages. What the prosecution sees as a hint of guilt, the Attorney General has framed as perfectly normal. García Ortiz stated that he "systematically" deletes messages monthly due to the type of information he has access to. He warned that if his phone falls into the wrong hands, "it puts many people in this country at risk." The UCO agents, however, lamented not being able to "recover the messages that would have been of interest to the investigation." García Ortiz's explanations failed to convince the prosecution, who, after his testimony, confirmed they maintain their requests for imprisonment and disqualification from public office against the defendant—only Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) modified their request, reducing it from four to three years in prison. This Thursday, with the closing arguments from both sides, the trial will conclude and await sentencing. If the court decides to heed their pleas and convict him instead of acquitting him as requested by the prosecution and the state attorney, García Ortiz will have to permanently retire from the judiciary.