Ayuso's right-hand man doesn't 'go forward': the judge exonerates her of having leaked journalists' data

Barcelona / MadridMiguel Ángel Rodríguez, the all-powerful chief of staff of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will not go "pa'lante", using the expression he himself has so often used against PSOE leaders. The judge has decided to dismiss the case against him for having leaked the names and photo of two journalists from El País who were investigating the tax fraud case of the Madrid president's boyfriend, as reported by Eldiario.es and confirmed to ARA by legal and Community of Madrid sources. The PSOE has already warned that it will appeal the decision.

After hearing the statements of both Rodríguez and Alberto González Amador, Ayuso's partner, the magistrate considers that there are no indications of a breach of secrets. The chief of staff, who denied in court having committed any crime, disseminated the names, surnames, and images of two journalists in a chat to various media outlets who in 2024 were identified by the police near Ayuso's residence. "There was never a breach of secrets," he defended after testifying: "[The affected journalists] are two people who sign their names every day in their newspaper, it's no secret...", he said.

Ayuso's right-hand man, against whom both the PSOE and the two journalists had filed a complaint, defended having explained that the reporters – according to him – "were bothering the neighbors and minors" next to the popular leader's house and admitted that González Amador had passed him the photograph of both through a neighbor, a version that the businessman reiterated before the judge.

The magistrate has decided to dismiss the case, considering that the leaked information "does not contain any reserved or personal data of the affected journalists." In this regard, she agrees with Rodríguez when he states that "these same data and their photograph are published in the same newspaper [El País]."

Likewise, she dismisses that the photographs were obtained illegally, through the police officers who are monitoring Ayuso. "No data obtained during the investigation allows us to maintain that the data consisting of the first name and surname, nor the image of the two journalists, were obtained from the information received from the police agents who identified them that day in the public street," states the judge.

The head of the instruction section of Madrid's court of instance 25 thus provisionally closes the case after the Madrid Court of Appeal forced her to deal with it when she had objected. The PSOE, however, has made it clear that it will not give up. The organization secretary of the Madrid socialists, Pilar Sánchez-Acera, has announced that they will appeal the dismissal of the case. "We will not allow the alleged crimes of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government to be dismissed through the back door," she said in a video sent to the media.