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

MadridOne 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 by 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 and the Spanish government will be obligated to appoint a replacement once it is formally notified. However, the Attorney General's defense can still appeal the court's decision by filing a motion for annulment. Initially, Susana Polo was tasked with drafting the sentence and favored acquittal. However, given that the five conservative judges, the majority of the court, were leaning towards a conviction, the drafting of the opinion has been reassigned to the president of the Criminal Chamber, Andrés Martínez Arrieta. Manuel Marchena, Carmen Lamela, Antonio del Moral, and Juan Ramón Berdugo will also support this view. In contrast, Polo and Ana Ferrer will issue dissenting opinions, disagreeing with their colleagues' verdict.

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 who testified during the trial claimed they had access to Ayuso's partner's confession before the email reached the Attorney General, who received it at 10:59 p.m. Later, The Sixth, the 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 him to trial was the fact that Álvaro García Ortiz deleted the WhatsApp messages on the same day he was charged. The prosecutor pointed out 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. Previously, he had argued that his phone contains "information that could affect the security" of the State, "highly sensitive" data, and an "unimaginable amount of information." However, the investigating judge believes that deleting the chats "frustrated" part of the investigation.

"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 was "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. For her part, the prosecutor considered the leak "impunity-free" because the news was "known to many media outlets." One of the most striking statements was that of Alberto González Amador. After questions from all sides, he made a final plea, accusing the Attorney General of "publicly assassinating" him and "ruining" his life: "Either I leave Spain or I commit suicide. If this is how it will always be, I'm escaping." And his lawyer, Gabriel Rodríguez-Ramos, denounced that Álvaro García Ortiz had promoted a "popular judgment of a confessed criminal" and a "public or institutional narrative of confession and guilt."

Ayuso attacks Sánchez, and the left points to the Supreme Court

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. "The entire international press is covering the Supreme Court's decision because it is inconceivable in a free democracy to use state resources to engage in criminal politics, all at the expense of a private citizen," she stated in a message to X, which she also wrote in English. Sources close to the Madrid leader added that Ayuso is "very satisfied" because she considers it an "unprecedented success for democracy: a Spaniard has defeated the state apparatus that targeted him simply because of his personal relationship with her." Ayuso will make an official statement this Friday.

In contrast, left-wing parties have reacted 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. "We will not accept that the rule of law be used to destabilize a legitimate government," these same sources emphasize. 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 with "pure judicial coup-mongering." From the ERC party, the leader of the Republicans in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, compares this case to the Catalan independence trial: "It is a war against certain ideas and against certain parties." And from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the spokesperson in the lower house, Maribel Vaquero, 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."