The Madrid Court of Appeals approves Peinado's investigation into the "criminal plan" of Begoña Gómez and her assistant.

MadridThe day after the judge in the Begoña Gómez case moved to try to charge the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, the Provincial Court of Madrid endorsed the investigation against Cristina Álvarez, an assistant to Pedro Sánchez's partner at the Moncloa Palace. The hiring of this person is precisely the reason why Juan Carlos Peinado wants to charge Bolaños. The higher court annuls Álvarez's witness statement—she was obliged to tell the truth—based on which Peinado charged her, but upholds the investigation into her for alleged influence peddling.

The judges rule out the possibility of her being charged with embezzlement because she did not have the authority to allocate, exploit, or consent to the misappropriation of funds. Thus, they limit the investigation to possible influence peddling. "The investigation should focus on whether he exceeded his public authority to further the criminal plan of the suspect [Begoña Gómez] in the crime of influence peddling, by diverting public funds improperly to serve private or particular interests," the judges said. The ruling by the three judges of Section 23 of the Madrid Court is quite forceful:

"A clear and blatant deviation of the duties of a public official with respect to what should be his functions of assistance, collaboration and institutional accompaniment, security and protocol, to the person linked by itself used, from the beginning, as an undue support or diversion of public resources exclusively in favor of private interests and, what is more important, from an institutionalized power structure such as the general secretariat of the presidency of the government, which could allow to infer solidarity with the actions of the main person investigated while reinforcing its prevalence in front of third parties. wife of the president of the government and exercising her functions from that network of the Moncloa Palace could have in all her private activity," they add to the ruling.

The spelling mistakes (and not only) of Peinado

This decision comes the day after Peinado issued a reasoned statement to the Supreme Court requesting an investigation into Bolaños. Some jurists, such as Joaquín Urías, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Seville, have thrown up their hands in horror: "The reasoned statement reads like a text written by a mentally ill person. It's disjointed, poorly written, unsubstantiated, and at times incomprehensible. I've never seen a court document like this in my life. It's even more unusual." It has become known that Juan Carlos Peinado has killed Begoña Gómez. In his ruling, he explains that the former minister met with Gómez and Álvarez on two or three occasions: "One of them was at a political event presenting the candidacy of the Spanish Prime Minister for the 2019 general elections [...]. The last time was at the funeral home for the death of Ms. Gómez," the judge writes, in the ruling, on June 26 of last year.

Another inaccuracy Peinado makes in his reasoned statement is that he already grants Bolaños the status of "investigated" simply because he has asked the Supreme Court to investigate him—he is a member of the Supreme Court and cannot decide. The words. In fact, the spelling mistakes in the text are the dominant feature of his writing. :ç.