The Civil Guard claims that the Attorney General deleted the messages on the day the Supreme Court indicted him

MadridThe Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, deleted the WhatsApp messages on day the Supreme Court charged him, October 16, 2024. This is what the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard claims in the latest report provided to the instructor of the case for disclosure of secrets opened against the attorney general for the leak of an email from Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner in which he acknowledged to the Madrid Prosecutor's Office the commission of two crimes against the public treasury.

"The lack of messages prior to October 16, 2024 to the WhatsApp messaging application is due, fundamentally, to the intentional emptying or deletion of all messages from the different conversations. The action was carried out on two occasions on October 16," concluded the Guà. The UCO had already confirmed last December that found Garcia Ortiz's cell phone empty, which made it difficult to determine whether or not he had leaked the email. Now, investigators have discovered when the deletion of the conversations occurred and have verified that the backup copy on Google Drive associated with his personal Gmail account was also deleted. In addition, investigators claim that there is another telephone number linked to mobile identifiers of García Ortiz whose data has not been recovered so far.

In the statement before the Supreme Court two weeks ago, the Attorney General stressed that phone changes and the deletion of messages are carried out periodically and for security reasons, even following the data protection regulations of the European Union. "If I had wanted to hide data, I would have changed [my phone number] on July 30, which is when the Madrid TSJ submitted the reasoned statement to the Supreme Court, or I would have changed it on October 15 or 16, which is when the Supreme Court accepted it. I would not have given my statement for six days in October. But in that response I ignored the fact that on the 16th he deleted the messages. "He should resign and, if not, the government should resign. He is the 23rd minister. The damage is colossal," criticized the PP spokesman, Borja Sémper.

Thus, the Civil Guard cannot track messages but can track calls, thanks to the information provided by telephone companies. In the latest report, the UCO confirms that García Ortiz did not speak by phone with any journalist on the night of March 13, 2024, which is when The World published the biased information about the possible agreement between Alberto González Amador and the Madrid Prosecutor's Office. What is recorded are different calls with the Madrid senior prosecutor, Almudena Lastra; the Madrid provincial prosecutor, Pilar Rodríguez; and the deputy prosecutor of the technical secretariat, Diego Villafañe, the latter two also accused. A journalist from Cadena SER tried to contact García Ortiz after the publication of theThe World, but the attorney general was on the phone at the time and they did not connect. However, it is not known if García Ortiz spoke to him or someone on WhatsApp.

A number associated with the Treasury

Beyond the Prosecutor's Office, the UCO states that García Ortiz does often communicate with a telephone number that corresponds to the General Directorate of Rationalization and Centralization of Contracting, an agency attached to the Ministry of Finance. He calls on March 12, when Eldiario.es reveals the complaint of the Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid against González Amador and the report of the Tax Agency. He also connects with this user, who does not identify himself, on the same day 13th at night, when he circulates in The World the public prosecutor's mail in defense of the businessman regarding a possible agreement.