The Supreme Court disqualifies the Attorney General and orders him to compensate Ayuso's partner.

One week after an unprecedented trial will endThe Supreme Court has announced an unprecedented decision. It has convicted the Attorney General of Spain, Álvaro García Ortiz, of disclosing classified information for leaking an email in which Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner admitted to committing two tax offenses. The sentence, which is still being drafted and will include two dissenting opinions, will impose a two-year ban from holding public office, a fine of €7,200, and will require him to pay Alberto González Amador €10,000 in damages for emotional distress. The Supreme Court convened after a six-day trial in which some forty witnesses testified. The decision was announced today, but the sentence will only take effect once it is formally served, at which point the Spanish government will be obligated to appoint his replacement. However, the Attorney General's defense can still appeal the court's decision by filing a motion to quash. Initially, Susana Polo was tasked with drafting the ruling, and she favored acquittal. However, seeing that the five conservative magistrates, the majority of the court, were leaning towards conviction, the drafting of the opinion was reassigned to the president of the criminal division, Andrés Martínez Arrieta. Manuel Marchena, Carmen Lamela, Antonio del Moral, and Juan Ramón Berdugo will also support this position. In contrast, Susana Polo and Ana Ferrer will issue dissenting opinions, disagreeing with their colleagues' verdict. For its part, the Supreme Court acquitted the Attorney General of the crime of malfeasance (brought by the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors and the Freedom and Alternative Forum Foundation) and of falsification of documents (also brought against him by Manos Limpias). What was judged, and what evidence was presented?

The key question the trial needed to answer was who leaked the email in which Alberto González Amador's lawyer admitted that he had "certainly" committed two tax offenses. The events unfolded rapidly on the evening of March 13, 2024, after... The World He accepted the version being spread by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Isabel Díaz Ayuso's chief of staff, and published that the Prosecutor's Office had offered a plea deal to Alberto González Amador. However, the initiative had actually come from Ayuso's partner. Following this, Álvaro García Ortiz became interested in the email exchange between the prosecutor and the lawyer (an email chain he was unaware of) and set to work drafting a press release detailing the timeline of the case.

Four journalists testified during the trial that they were aware of Ayuso's partner's confession before the email reached the Attorney General, who received it at 9:59 p.m. Later, La Sexta, Cadena SER, and The Country They explained the real sequence of events and refuted the news published by The WorldThe following morning, the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office sent the press release prepared by Álvaro García Ortiz and his team to the media.

The deletion of WhatsApp messages under scrutiny

One of the elements that led the Supreme Court to send Álvaro García Ortiz to trial was that he deleted his WhatsApp messages on the same day he was charged. The prosecutor argued that the deletion was "legitimate" and "had no bearing whatsoever" on the investigation, and he justified it by saying that he "systematically" does not keep professional chats for more than a month. In contrast, the Supreme Court believes he wanted to "hide information" and "unfavorable" elements.

"The truth is not leaked, the truth is defended"

On the final day of the trial, Álvaro García Ortiz's lawyer, Ignacio Ocio, argued that the Attorney General is "innocent of everything," emphasizing that "there is no evidence whatsoever because there can't be any," and lamenting that "an institutional activity" had been "criminalized." The Attorney General claimed that he requested the emails between the prosecutor and the lawyer to "know" what had happened and to be able to "defend the absolutely impeccable actions of the prosecutors." "The truth isn't leaked, the truth is defended," he concluded at the end of the questioning.

Ayuso attacks Sánchez, and the Catalan independence movement recalls the Process

Just hours after the verdict was announced, the president of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, celebrated the ruling and once again targeted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. "In a free democracy, it is inconceivable to use state resources to conduct politics while committing crimes," she said in a message to X, which she also wrote in English. Sources close to the Madrid leader added that she is "very satisfied" because she considers it an "unprecedented success" in which a citizen "has defeated the state apparatus" that "went after him simply because of his personal relationship with her." The leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, spoke out after her. He also implicated Sánchez in the case, not only for having appointed García Ortiz, but also for having "kept him in his position and encouraged him to remain in it" since he was indicted. Feijóo has demanded an apology and, indirectly, that Sánchez call elections: "There would be no other way out than Sánchez's resignation and the return to the Spanish people of their voice to decide what political future we want."

In contrast, the Catalan independence movement is reminiscent of the Process of National Reorganization. Gabriel Rufián, the leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) in Congress, compared this case to the trial of the Catalan independence referendum of October 1st: "It's a war against ideas and against political parties." "We separatists have long warned the Spanish left that there is a part of the judiciary that would come after them," he recalled. Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) has also weighed in: "We Catalans are the least surprised by this outcome; we know the Supreme Court," stated Míriam Nogueras. "Spanish corruption is institutionalized," she added.

The Spanish left also came out strongly against the conviction. Sources within the Sumar coalition believe that the Attorney General's conviction is a "full-blown judicial coup" and represents the "clearest proof" that "certain sectors" of the judiciary have entered into a "political battle" against the Spanish government to try to "interfere in the democratic life" of the State. Along similar lines, the Secretary General of Podemos, Ione Belarra, believes that "the right-wing judiciary and media are carrying out a civil assassination" of the Attorney General through "pure judicial coup-mongering."

On behalf of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), spokesperson Maribel Vaquero in the lower house posed the question: "Impunity for someone who admits to lying?", alluding to Miguel Ángel Rodríguez. And the leader of Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, recalled the words of José María Aznar: "Whoever can do something, let them do it."