At the beginning of April 2024, few people knew Juan Carlos Peinado. His name rose to fame when on April 24th it became known that he had opened a case against Begoña Gómez, the wife of Pedro Sánchez, following a complaint from Manos Limpias. A decision that led to the five days of reflection during which the Spanish president considered resigning, although in the end he decided to continue. Last Monday, five days before his retirement—this Saturday the BOE already publishes his forced retirement at 72 years of age—, the controversial judge put the finishing touch on his career by sending Begoña Gómez to trial before a jury for influence peddling and embezzlement.

To no one's surprise, Begoña Gómez, the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been sent to trial for embezzlement and influence peddling.It is the news of the day and, at the same time, it was already taken for granted. You know what happens when the episodes of a series are coming to an end, when the writers drown the protagonists with an accumulation of problems? Well, here we are: the Spanish legislature has months left, and Aznar's watchword of “Whoever can do, let them do” is working at full speed. Note that the judge who is sending Sánchez's wife to trial, the judge Juan Carlos Peinado, is retiring next week. He is leaving through the front door, with a big game trophy. Because one thing is that Begoña Gómez has to answer to the law like everyone else, but not everyone is answering to the law in the same way. Carlos Mazón, with hundreds of deaths on his conscience, continues to collect a deputy's salary. It would be touching if it were not pathetic to hear yesterday on TVE a minister of Sánchez, Óscar López, acknowledging that at the beginning of the 'Procés', he did not understand what was happening, and that now he understands everything.

I open Ara.cat and the first thing I see are two headlines that, juxtaposed, are even more eloquent than when read separately. “Peinado sends Begoña Gómez to trial for embezzlement and influence peddling”, says the one in the report signed by Núria Orriols Guiu. “Mazón shrugs off responsibility and refuses to give new explanations in Congress regarding the DANA”, says the one in the news story signed by Andrea Zamorano.Beyond dealing with the bituminous Spanish politics, both share the common element of duty fulfilled. Judge Peinado, having become an icon of justice placed at the service of political interests that would not escape the understanding of even a child, retires on Sunday and did not want to do so without having carried out the objective he had set for himself (and, we can also understand it this way, to which he had committed himself): to bring the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to trial for a completely invented case that has had one of the most bizarre and ridiculous journeys in Spanish justice in the last ten years (and that is saying a lot). He has done it just as he wanted: with a popular jury, in order to increase the possibility of a guilty verdict. The family in prison: Begoña Gómez, David Sánchez and, if possible, Pedro Sánchez in person. In his case, for being a traitor to Spain. This is the current wet dream of the Spanish right, a maximum revenge against imaginary grievances. It is the same right that from time to time feels the need to save Spain, even if it means destroying the rule of law or, directly, a few hundred thousand citizens as happened during the Civil War and the dictatorship. And it is, also, the scrupulous realization of Aznar's mandate: whoever can do, let them do. Surely, Peinado will not have a reward because henchmen usually do not get one, beyond a few pats on the back. And the satisfaction of duty fulfilled.Mazón also did his duty, enduring the scandal of the disastrous management of the DANA on October 29, 2024, and the 230 deaths caused by his government's negligence, without resigning, without calling elections, and facilitating an easy transition with his second-in-command, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, so that the management of the thirty billion of the Reconstruction Plan would remain in the hands of the PP and his government. In return, he has been left with an ex-president's salary, a seat in the Valencian Courts where he can go to take a nap if he feels like it, and a full exoneration from the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Country that Mazón flaunted this Monday at his appearance in Congress as if it were a license to kill. And which aborted the investigation by the judge of Catarroja, at least until Mazón loses his parliamentary immunity. The inept and lying man has a reward and protection; the woman who, as far as we know, has done nothing punishable but is married to the wrong political leader, runs the risk of being convicted; the judge who pursues her has the applause of the neo-Francoist horde. The juxtaposition explains well, indeed, the moment of degradation of politics and justice in which we find ourselves.

Progressives have prevailed over conservatives on the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and, thanks to the casting vote of president Isabel Perelló, have proposed to sanction judge Juan Carlos Peinado for a minor offense of disrespect for having suggested that Begoña Gómez's escorts could help her flee. The informational proceedings were opened a month ago and already at that first moment the CGPJ was divided because the conservative members alleged that reviewing the judge's words on precautionary measures was not within the CGPJ's competence. Initially, there was a possible serious offense on the table, but it has finally been reduced to minor. This stalemate of positions, which hindered the first attempt to reach an agreement, has been maintained until the end, but Perelló's casting vote – as in the initial vote – has broken the tie. The final say will lie with the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, which will now have to decide whether to sanction the judge or not: it can issue a warning, impose a fine of up to 500 euros, or apply both penalties.

Juan Carlos Peinado doubts Begoña Gómez and moves again. After Pedro Sánchez's wife flew to London to attend her daughter's graduation, which was last Friday, the judge who has been investigating her for two years and has prohibited her from leaving Spain due to risk of flight, gives her five days to prove that she used her passport only for this trip: “To require her to prove that the passport has been used for the specific purpose for which the precautionary measure was lifted,” he points out in a provision to which ARA has had access. And he adds that he wants to verify it to ensure that she has not taken “any action” that could constitute a crime of breaking a precautionary measure.

Juan Carlos Peinado once again defends tooth and nail having had Begoña Gómez's passport withdrawn and preventing her from leaving Spain to avoid her fleeing. He does this in a report he has presented to the Madrid High Court in response to the appeal by Pedro Sánchez's wife's lawyers against the precautionary measures. He acts as if he hears nothing and "reaffirms and reiterates" all of them. Two days ago,another judge, who replaced him, prevented that Gómez traveled to Turkey for accompany Sánchez to the NATO summit, but it allowed him to go to London for his daughter's graduation. “This would not be the first time that a prime minister of a European Union member state has fled to an African continent country to avoid a corruption plot proceeding,” Peinado maintains in the document, to which ARA has had access.

Juan Carlos Peinado has shaken off the pressure and gone on vacation without resolving Begoña Gómez's request to be allowed to leave Spain. The judge who had to step in has ended up being Antonio Viejo Llorente, the same one investigating Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. His decision has been not to allow Pedro Sánchez's wife to travel to Ankara to attend the NATO summit, which will be held from July 7 to 8, mainly because Turkey does not belong to the European Union and, therefore, he considers that a hypothetical extradition would be more complicated. However, he does allow her to travel to London to attend her daughter's graduation, which will be on Friday the 10th.

First consequences of the withdrawal of Begoña Gómez's passport. Pedro Sánchez's wife, who Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has provisionally withdrawn her document and prohibited her from leaving the country, has had to make a first request to the magistrate to lift the measure. In a written statement, to which ARA has had access, Gómez asks for permission to accompany Sánchez to the NATO summit to be held from July 7 to 10 in Ankara, Turkey, and also to take advantage of the trip to attend her daughter's graduation, which will be held in London.

There is a comparison between two fashionable judges who are currently making a name for themselves: José Luis Calama, who is investigating José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the National Court, and Juan Carlos Peinado, who has sent Begoña Gómez to trial after a two-year investigation. It is obvious to everyone that the way these two major media cases in which they are involved are being handled is different. Indeed, high-ranking voices from Moncloa in the corridors of Congress admit that Calama "is not" Peinado, as shown by the fact that the investigation into the former Spanish president, still in its early stages, does not have the extravagances of the indictment of Pedro Sánchez's wife. The clear distance between the two has become evident, especially in two matters: the adoption of precautionary measures and the indictment of individuals who have previously testified under oath to tell the truth. Let's go step by step.

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has opened the way to open proceedings against judge Juan Carlos Peinado, arguing that the bodyguards of the president's wife, Begoña Gómez, could help her flee. Despite the media noise, history shows that sanctioning a magistrate is almost a pipe dream. Recent examples support this: in 2024, the CGPJ ended up filing the proceedings against a judge who called the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a "psychopath", and in February 2026, the conservative majority turned a blind eye to magistrates Eloy Velasco and Manuel Ruiz de Lara, who called the president's wife "Barbigoña", invoking freedom of expression.

Aznar's “let him who can do it do it” has been taken so much to heart by the Spanish nationalist right that a real competition is underway among guardians of the fatherland's essences to see who can strike the hardest, and if possible, definitive blow, against the communist dictatorship of Pedro Sánchez, an accomplice of Basque terrorists and Catalan coup plotters. Judge Peinado, in particular, seems to feel called to the high mission of delivering a mortal blow to perfidious sanchismo before his own retirement arrives (in September). As is public and notorious, the way he has found to do so is a classic of fascism and mafias: attacking the relatives and closest people to the enemy, defaming them, humiliating them. Mission accomplished: Judge Peinado's investigation against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, is as extravagant, irresponsible, and unacceptable as one wishes, but she will no longer be able to avoid, for as many years as she lives, that when her name is mentioned someone will associate her (want to associate her) with corruption.With so much zeal they put into it, they not only commit a coup d'état, not as soft as it is sometimes called, which is perpetrated from the very institutions of the State, but they also manage to trample on each other, and this is more unusual and more ironic. Peinado, specifically, has managed to anger the police unions, for having withdrawn Begoña Gómez's passport with the suspicion that the escorts could help her flee. The National Police, accomplices of Sanchismo! Where will we end up. Both the National Police and the Civil Guard have worked overtime to save Spain from any fumanxú that could endanger its sacred unity, only to now be pointed out as possible accomplices in an eventual escape by Begoña Gómez, one of the protagonists of the most squalid misogynistic memes circulating in patriotic WhatsApp groups. The main police unions, Jupol and SUP, are beside themselves and Minister Marlaska has summoned them. That is to say, he asked the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to act, and the CGPJ has reprimanded Peinado, even if with a pronounced internal division. That's fine, but it would have been better if they had clarified whether Peinado is guilty of malfeasance, as stated by former Supreme Court magistrate Martín Pallín. Or even better, whether the judicialization of politics is not a serious problem for the rule of law. The arachnid sense, however, warns us that corporatism will prevail and that these debates about the magistracy will not take place, at least not publicly. A prominent member of the judicial leadership summarized it quite well: let us be left alone.The Spanish right has become so inflamed that, in order to save Spain, it doesn't mind destroying it. “Nothing happens. When we return to power, which they usurped from us, we will fix the mess,” they tell themselves. The problem is that the rule of law does not break and repair at will. Meanwhile, amnesty – another scandal of a judiciary that refuses to apply current law – looms on the horizon of the end of the legislature.

The school year has ended, tomorrow is the eve of Sant Joan and summer has begun in the midst of a heatwave, which reminds us that the prophecies about the consequences of climate change in Catalonia are unfortunately being fulfilled on time.And with all, today's news is not this, but that of judge Peinado, who this weekend has requested the passport from Begoña Gómez, the wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. The judge considers (hold my drink) that the police escort for the Sánchez family could collaborate in an escape from Spain. See how big a mess Judge Peinado has made that this morning the CGPJ has met again to see if they open a file on him.There is no doubt that Begoña Gómez has had her passport confiscated to humiliate her and her husband, to see if she finally abandons the presidency of the Spanish government. They are after her. They want her to resign. Even more, they want her in prison. Let's see, corruption within the PSOE has already led to three of Sánchez's collaborators being imprisoned, but this is not incompatible with Sánchez being the subject of political persecution by elements of the judiciary, obedient to the Aznar-era war cry “he who can, do,” who believe they have a corporate and patriotic duty to prevent the amnesty from correcting what the Supreme Court ruled. Especially since, thanks to the amnesty, Sánchez has managed to govern despite losing the elections. And he has been president for eight years now. And it's becoming eternal for them.

The General Council of the Judiciary has decided to open proceedings to open an investigation into judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is investigating the Begoña Gómez case, for arguing that the bodyguards of the wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, could help her flee. This justification, for which the magistrate decided to withdraw her passport as a precautionary measure, is the reason why the judicial body has decided to open an investigation. According to the CGPJ, the judge's words may constitute a "serious lack of consideration", provided for in article 418.5 of the organic law of the judiciary. Now there will be a promoter of the investigation who, after various informational proceedings, will decide whether to definitively open the investigation or issue a resolution to close the case. Sources consulted at the CGPJ assure that there are other pending complaints against Peinado that could also be analyzed this same week.

For months, the case being investigated by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado against Begoña Gómez, wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has been causing unease within socialist ranks: they consider it "persecution" against Gómez for being the wife of the head of the state executive. This weekend, however, Peinado has also managed to outrage the police and part of the judiciary with the argument he used to justify the withdrawal of Gómez's passport, a precautionary measure requested by the popular prosecution led by the ultra entity Hazte Oír. The magistrate considered there was a flight risk because her escorts could help her in a possible escape. An argument that angered the police force and also put the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on alert. So much so that this Monday the permanent commission of this body will study whether to open disciplinary proceedings against Peinado.

In a book published at the beginning of the year (On the Rule of Law), its author, Javier Cremades, warns about the fragility of the rule of law.

It is difficult to talk about lawfare in the cases that harass the PSOE due to the multitude of evidence and proof that accumulate daily, but if there is one that could serve to illustrate a textbook case of lawfare it would be the one affecting the wife of the Spanish president, Begoña Gómez. Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has led a surreal investigation, guided by evident bad faith and hostility towards Pedro Sánchez and his circle. For this reason, everyone took for granted that last Monday, when Begoña Gómez was summoned for a hearing, the judge would proceed to inform her of her indictment and the opening of oral proceedings. Surprisingly, however, five days later, the judge has not yet communicated his decision, nor has he ruled on the popular prosecution's request to withdraw her passport preventively, which unjustifiably prolongs the procedure.

While everyone was waiting for Juan Carlos Peinado to decide whether to send Begoña Gómez to trial and whether to revoke her passportdecide whether to send Begoña Gómez to trial and whether to revoke her passport, the controversial judge has made an unexpected move and has decided to open a new line of investigation in the case concerning Pedro Sánchez's wife. It is a separate piece for the crimes of prevarication and fraud against the interests of the European Union for a contract that was awarded to a company owned by Juan Carlos Barrabés. In a resolution of just over 200 words, the magistrate limits himself to citing the decree of the European Prosecutor's Office and avoids giving any minimal explanation of who intervened. It is, therefore, a very embryonic first step. Four hours after it became known, Peinado had to issue a new resolution to "clarify" that the piece is opened "solely" with respect to the businessman and, therefore, excludes the Spanish president's wife.

In recent weeks, political news in Madrid has been marked by judicial investigations. The outbreak of the Leire case and the Zapatero case have shaken the PSOE and have once again placed Pedro Sánchez in a moment of maximum weakness. And there is a repeated name that appears linked to the so-called plumber of the PSOE and the investigation into the former president of the Spanish government: Nervis Gerardo Villalobos, who was Vice Minister of Energy in Venezuela with Hugo Chávez from 2004 to 2006.

While Begoña Gómez trusts that the Madrid Court of Appeal will prevent Regulation on the creation of extraordinary chairs includes the "possibility" that, "exceptionally and for justified reasons," someone "without a labor link" to the university may be appointed as director.

With the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and his wife on the other side of the world, on an official visit to China, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has closed the investigation and sent Begoña Gómez to trial. He did so this Monday in an order full of historical and literary references, unusual in legal language. As he has done throughout the investigation, in his latest order, Peinado shows great interest in linking her to her husband, despite the fact that Sánchez's role is not part of the investigation. He refers to her as "the wife of" up to four times, insisting that Gómez's professional activity experienced notable growth once Sánchez arrived at Moncloa.