Judges rarely see the consequences of their decisions firsthand. And this Thursday was one of those days. Most of the Supreme Court judges that Álvaro García Ortiz was sentenced They have witnessed, from the front row, the inauguration of their successor as Attorney General of the StateTeresa Peramato. 786 days later, the high court closed the circle and reaped the rewards of an unprecedented ruling that will mark a turning point.

This morning there has been The last question time session of the year in the government of Pedro Sánchez and Feijóo has been harshly criticized for the Salazar caseAs the scandals surrounding Sánchez are growing at a remarkable pace, let me refresh your memory: Paco Salazar was a trusted confidant of Sánchez, helping him in the Socialist primaries in Andalusia, bringing him to the Moncloa Palace, and even being on the ballot to become the PSOE's organizational secretary, but he didn't get the position because of sexual harassment by some female colleagues. The accusations were swept under the rug until they resurfaced, forcing the PSOE to apologize. Of course, when you add to a party that already has a former minister in prison for frequenting brothels the sexual harassment allegations against a man close to Sánchez, Sánchez's feminism is called into question. That's why Feijóo attacked him this morning.

"We must condemn and do condemn Álvaro García Ortiz as the perpetrator of a crime of disclosing confidential information." Nineteen days after announcing the sentence, the Supreme Court has made the sentence public that consummates an unprecedented institutional clash and that disqualifies the Attorney General of the State for two yearsThe court, by a majority of five votes to two, relied on a set of "solid, consistent and conclusive" evidence to "necessarily" affirm that he or "a person in his immediate circle and with his knowledge" leaked the Cadena SER The email from the lawyer of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. The 181-page ruling considers that Álvaro García Ortiz had a "reinforced duty of confidentiality" which he "violated without justification." In contrast, the progressive justices Ana Ferrer and Susana Polo, who issued a dissenting opinion, maintain that it "has not been proven" that the Attorney General was the one who leaked the information. Álvaro García Ortiz will be replaced by Teresa Peramatowho was formally appointed this Tuesday and will take office this week.

The Supreme Court reported two weeks ago that disqualified the Attorney General of the StateThe decision was communicated, but the full text of the ruling—including the reasons for the conviction—was to be released later. The urgency with which the judges deliberated, barely a week after the trial ended, surprised everyone. Since then, every morning the question lingers: will this be the day we learn the verdict? But it still hasn't arrived. And this has prompted multiple interpretations: Supreme Court sources consulted by ARA maintain that the delay "is neither extraordinary nor unusual," while the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF) expresses "deep concern" and denounces "institutional mistreatment." Be that as it may, the reality is that Álvaro García Ortiz resigned from his position and the Spanish government initiated the replacement process, which will culminate in the coming days with the formal appointment of her replacementTeresa Peramato, in fact, could take office before the content of the sentence against her predecessor is known.

In the coming days, Teresa Peramato will be formally appointed. new Attorney GeneralAfter receiving the suitability of the CGPJ And before appearing before the Congress of Deputies, the King still needs to certify his appointment. His arrival at Fortuny Street in Madrid – headquarters of the State Attorney General's Office – was expedited after the Supreme Court Álvaro García Ortiz convicted and that he, although the sentence is not yet known, resigned from officeNext, the Council of Ministers set the succession process in motion. When announcing her name, Minister Félix Bolaños urged her to "continue strengthening the autonomy" of the Public Prosecutor's Office and to work towards "achieving independence and freedom of judgment." This Thursday, Teresa Peramato appeared before Congress, where she pledged to promote the "necessary actions and reforms" to "continue advancing in autonomy," one of the fundamental pillars of the Public Prosecutor's Office. However, her first steps will be marked by the aftermath of her predecessor's conviction: "It is a deep wound that must heal, I hope and wish, under my leadership and with the work and effort of all prosecutors," she acknowledged at the beginning of her address. She also sought to address the "unjustified doubts" being raised about the Public Prosecutor's Office due to its hierarchical structure: "It demonstrates a lack of understanding of how the Public Prosecutor's Office functions."

Teresa Peramato will be the new Attorney General of Spain. The name of this veteran prosecutor specializing in gender violence has emerged amidst the controversy surrounding the reasons that led the Spanish government to replace Álvaro García Ortiz: a Supreme Court conviction for revealing secrets. The Council of Ministers on Tuesday initiated the formal appointment process, drawing criticism from the right wing regarding the methods used, though conservatives have not dismissed the profile of a professional considered highly prestigious. At a press conference in the Moncloa Palace, Bolaños highlighted Peramato's "feminist commitment" and "vocation for public service," as well as her "extraordinary legal training." He also once again praised her predecessor, whose departure is being met with reluctance. The appointment of her successor will not be immediate, and the Spanish government intends for García Ortiz to remain in his post until the appointment is finalized. Sources within the Spanish government are confident that the timelines for both processes will coincide because, however much the Supreme Court may notify the ruling that disqualifies her for two years earlier, "it will not be immediately enforceable."

The silence is over. Three days later, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has finally spoken out about it. the conviction of the Attorney General of the StateÁlvaro García Ortiz, escalating the clash with the judiciary, has entrusted the Constitutional Court with correcting "some aspects of the ruling." "We have always respected the independence of the judiciary; it is others who have spoken of controlling the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court through the back door," he stated this Sunday at a press conference in Johannesburg, where he is participating in the G-20 summit. With this jab at the People's Party (PP) for the control of the high court that Popular Party Senator Ignacio Cosidó boasted about, he has distanced himself and taken the opportunity to implicitly criticize the chamber presided over by Manuel Marchena, which handed down the sentence. "We accept the ruling, although we do not agree with it," he continued, reiterating the message conveyed by the Moncloa Palace (the Prime Minister's office) since Thursday. In this regard, he reaffirmed that his government "regrets" the ruling and chooses to "express its disagreement," as it believes is appropriate in a democratic society. "I believe in the innocence of the Attorney General," he insisted, despite the court verdict. For this reason, he clung to the testimony of journalists who exonerated García Ortiz from the leak of confidential emails containing tax information about the partner of the Madrid president—the crux of the case. "It has been clearly demonstrated that the Attorney General was not the source of the leak," he asserted. In addition to "regretting this sentence," as he repeatedly stated, he said that "the procedure to appoint a new Attorney General" has already begun. He also expressed confidence that the Constitutional Court will rectify some points of the sentence, which he labeled "controversial," once it is made public with the full legal reasoning, not just the operative part: "There are other jurisdictional bodies that will have to resolve some aspects of the sentence," he remarked.

If the trial itself was already quite unusual, the sentencing of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, to two years of disqualification from public office and the order to compensate Alberto González Amador—in other words, his institutional demise—has been even more surprising. The result is that the strategy of the advisor and strongman behind Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the controversial Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has triumphed. Even Aznar dismissed Rodríguez for being too radical when he was spokesperson for his government. Rodríguez, aided by the press and the judiciary aligned with his views, has achieved the Attorney General's dismissal, and there is a possibility, following this sentence, that the trial of Ayuso's fraudulent partner will come to nothing if it is determined that their rights were violated.

The conviction of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, is one that marks a turning point, a stage in the life of the State and the relations between its institutions. The reasoning behind the sentence will, of course, need to be examined, but the very fact that the Attorney General has been found guilty of a crime implies a correction imposed on the government of Pedro Sánchez, which had defended his innocence. Furthermore, the conduct of the Public Prosecutor's Office was being judged for refuting a media manipulation. What García Ortiz did was address a lie that compromised the credibility of his administration. The false news was that the Public Prosecutor's Office had halted negotiations with businessman Alberto González Amador—accused of tax fraud—following instructions received from high-ranking officials, that is, from the government. It was further claimed that the attempted settlement had initially been promoted by the prosecutors, when in reality it had been requested by the defense.

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.

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We are approaching Christmas with a host of unknowns and one certainty: the legislature will not end, no matter how much the People's Party (PP) insists otherwise. Pedro Sánchez has stated twice in recent days that the referendum will be held in 2027, and it has become quite clear that he is not overly concerned about the lack of parliamentary support. In short, he does not consider it an insurmountable obstacle. The opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Junts per Catalunya) has also made it clear that they are not part of the coalition, that the collaboration, which had been ongoing despite its ups and downs since the 2023 investiture debate, has come to an end. However, the Junts per Catalunya members have also saved the government from some setbacks in Congress. It is well known that ruptures can have degrees. To complete the picture of these warnings, the group's spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, called Sánchez "cynical and hypocritical" in the last marathon debate held in Congress, due to his failure to honor agreements and promises.

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This Thursday marks the final session of the trial against the Attorney General of Spain, Álvaro García Ortiz, at the Supreme Court, where the prosecution and defense will present their closing arguments. The oral proceedings, which have heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, have remained unchanged since the beginning of the trial: it began without any direct incriminating evidence against García Ortiz and has concluded in the same way. However, the unprecedented situation of seeing an Attorney General in the dock has been witnessed. As a reminder, the Attorney General is accused of leaking an email from the lawyer of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's boyfriend, Alberto González Amador, in which he accepted a plea bargain with the Prosecutor's Office in exchange for his client admitting to two tax offenses. During Wednesday's session, Civil Guard Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Balas, head of the UCO (Central Operative Unit), was only able to testify that during the investigation, "the Attorney General's control over the entire process was evident." In other words, lacking conclusive evidence, the most the Civil Guard could offer at the trial was that "a domain was visible," that is, a supposition without any concrete supporting evidence. In previous sessions, a dozen journalists testified to having accessed the infamous email before the Attorney General, and in fact, the information was published minutes before his subordinates forwarded it to him. Based on what was seen at the trial, a conviction seems unimaginable, but it is also true that the Spanish justice system is notorious for making inexplicable decisions. However, what can no longer be repaired is the damage to the institution. The State Attorney General's Office has become a collateral victim of the all-out war between the PP and PSOE parties, and specifically of the war that the Madrid government under Ayuso is waging against Pedro Sánchez's administration. In this regard, it is well known that the PP and Vox enjoy considerable support within the judiciary, which has helped to prolong processes like this one or the one Judge Peinado is handling against Sánchez's wife. Because what has been proven in the trial is that Ayuso's chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, fabricated a falsehood and spread it in chats with journalists until a media outlet, specifically The WorldHe published it. "I'm a journalist, not a notary," he argued, as if journalists didn't have to verify their information and had free rein to lie.

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The defense made by the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, on Sunday in The CountryThe assertion of the "innocence" of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, has infuriated the right wing, which considers it a way to "pressure" the Supreme Court. According to Moncloa Palace, nothing could be further from the truth. This Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Spanish government and Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, reaffirmed that "there is no evidence" to convict the Attorney General, basing her statement on the testimony of various witnesses who appeared before the Supreme Court. Last week, a journalist fromEldiario.es He already exonerated him, categorically asserting that García Ortiz was "innocent" and that he was not the source who provided the leaked email.Two other journalists corroborated this version on the fourth day of the trial. Miguel Ángel Campos, a journalist with Cadena SER, who published the contents of the February 2, 2024, message containing confidential information about Isabel Díaz Ayuso's boyfriend on the night of the leak, also exonerated the Attorney General. Campos explained that although he called him that night, he did not speak with him. García Ortiz did not answer the phone, did not return the call, and they did not exchange messages. In fact, the SER journalist asserted that he had access to the email hours before the Attorney General. While investigators place the time when García Ortiz obtained the message at 9:59 p.m. on March 13, 2024, Campos testified that he consulted it early that afternoon. He did so from his source's computer screen—which only allowed him to take notes and did not forward or print the email—located in an office on the "third floor." This location puts the spotlight on the Madrid Regional Prosecutor's Office. Both the defense for the Attorney General and the prosecution have insisted on questioning the case in that physical space throughout the trial. The Chief Prosecutor of Madrid, Almudena Lastra—who in her testimony pointed the finger at García Ortiz—and the head of press for the Madrid Prosecutor's Office, Íñigo Corral, both witnesses in the first sessions of the trial, work on the third floor of the Madrid High Court building.

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In these pages we have already recalled on other occasions that on November 2, 2017, the then Secretary General of ERC, Marta Rovira, warned that what the Spanish justice system, hand in hand with the PP, was doing against the independence movement—imprisoning an entire government—would one day turn against the PSOE. That this moment has arrived is demonstrated once again with the start of the trial of the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, a high point in the war that the right-wing-dominated Spanish judicial leadership launched against Pedro Sánchez when he agreed to an amnesty with Junts in exchange for remaining in power. Executive, because it would be inappropriate not to specify.

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An error in the restraining order control system left the location data of many individuals investigated and convicted for domestic violence crimes inaccessible, which would have been key to proving violations of these protection orders. The effects of this, warns the Attorney General's Office, have been noted in "a large number of provisional dismissals or acquittals." The incident that occurred last year affected both cases that were in the investigation phase and were ultimately closed, as well as trials in which, due to lack of evidence, a violation of the restraining order could not be convicted.

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The Prosecutor's Office is calling for the "alarming" increase in drug trafficking in the Barcelona area. Last year, there were 71.49% more drug trafficking cases than in 2023, and those related to hard drugs grew the most. The number of legal proceedings rose from 4,234 in 2023 to 7,261 in 2024, a figure that places Barcelona as the province with the most cases in the entire state and almost double that of Madrid, which accumulated 3,891 last year.

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The day after the PP demonstration in Madrid, a Supreme Court ruling proposes a trial against the State Attorney GeneralThe crime of which Judge Ángel Hurtado considers him a suspect is the same one that the PP and the inevitable Ayuso have been attributing to him for months: disclosure of secrets. It is assumed that the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, would have requested, and circulated, an email from Ayuso's partner, the already famous González Amador, in which he asked for a pact with the Prosecutor's Office in exchange for admitting some of the fraudulent activities with which he has enriched himself. The toxic Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, pioneer of the criminal and arrogant rhetoric that has prevailed in Madrid politics, had already predicted it: the Attorney General was going to go forwardWell, here we have it. The Supreme Court not only agrees in this case with the hitman's opinion, but also with that of the gang leader (you see, we've ended up with a mafia analogy): everyone is aware of Aznar's order when he dropped the line "whoever can do it, let them do it."

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In full judicial offensive against the State Attorney General, investigated for the leak of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's boyfriend's email, the Spanish government is moving to depoliticize the highest representation of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday a reform that sets the Attorney General's term at five years, with the aim of "guaranteeing his independence." Thus, the renewal of the Attorney General's term will no longer coincide with that of the executive branch, as it has until now, so a hypothetical government of another political persuasion would have to coexist the first year with an Attorney General proposed by the previous administration. Furthermore, he will not be able to repeat his position. In other words, Álvaro García Ortiz would no longer be able to continue after the 2027 elections, although in his case it was already the case anyway because he will have already served two terms. These are the main changes that Pedro Sánchez proposes for the Public Prosecutor's Office.

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The Supreme Court has saved Pedro Sánchez from an initiative by PP and Vox that would have put the Spanish prime minister in a very bad place. One of his most controversial decisions since he arrived at the Moncloa, appointing Dolores Delgado attorney general of the State, will not be revoked by the court. This Tuesday the fourth section has thrown out the appeal presented by right-wing parties, as it considers that it lacks the power to challenge the executive's move. The ruling, adopted by five of the seven members of the court, will be released in the coming days.

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