The judge in the Leire case charges Sánchez's former chief of staff to the PSOE and authorizes the analysis of his mobile phone

MadridSantiago Pedraz tightens the circle around Pedro Sánchez's inner circle. The judge investigating the Leire Díez case at the National Court has decided to investigate Juan Manuel Serrano, who was Pedro Sánchez's chief of staff at the PSOE before he reached Moncloa and president of Correos from 2018 to 2023. He takes this step after the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requested it following "}the latest report from the Civil Guard, which concluded that he had a “relevant and preeminent participation” in the alleged plot. The report from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) indicated that he and Díez would have “worked closely in the achievement of the objectives” of the supposed organization, both in the alleged irregular awarding of contracts within the SEPI environment and in attempts to destabilize judicial cases linked to the socialists.

The other major decision the judge has made has been to authorize the “cloning, dumping, and analysis” of his mobile phone to be able to “determine his scope of responsibility” in the decision-making of the alleged plot and to discern whether he “limited himself to consenting to the illicit operation” or went as far as to “promote and direct it”. He, for example, participated in the "meeting that marked the starting point in the investigations that are now under scrutiny, on April 26, 2024, after Pedro Sánchez's Letter to citizens following the investigation into his wife. From that day on, he maintained "constant communication" with Leire Díez:

Regarding Juanma Serrano's role as president of Correus, Santiago Pedraz points out that he facilitated the “irregular hiring” of Leire Díez as general director of Philately and Institutional Relations of Correus. From this position, and with the supposed “acquiescence” of the president of the public company, she allegedly promoted two irregular hiring processes with the aim of benefiting herself or Vicente Fernández, former president of SEPI, who is also under investigation.

Two PSOE workers, exonerated

The Civil Guard also wanted to examine the mobile phones of Covadonga San Pedro and Celia Rodríguez, two employees of Ferraz. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office opposed this and, finally, the judge lifted their charges because he believes they were limited to "executing" the orders they received from Santos Cerdán, who was the organization secretary of the PSOE, to manage the trips and meetings of those investigated. However, it has not been proven that they "knew they were carrying out the illicit plan." He has summoned them as witnesses next Tuesday, July 28, and on that day he will ask them to provide the communications they had between April 2024 and June 2025 with Santos Cerdán, Leire Díez, Juan Manuel Serrano, and Ana María Fuentes.

The mobile phone of the PSOE manager

Finally, the judge also does not authorize the inspection of the mobile phone of Ana María Fuentes, the manager of the PSOE. She is being investigated for a crime of falsification of commercial documents for having issued the two order notes that served to justify Ferraz's payments to lawyers Ismael Oliver and Jacobo Teijelo – also under investigation – and which allegedly sought to "remunerate" Leire Díez's tasks. Santiago Pedraz has closed the door to such an "invasive" measure, seeing that the role attributed to her is limited to a "concrete and auxiliary intervention" that places her as a "co-author or accomplice," rather than a "principal responsible party" for the crimes.