The permanent commission of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) will study whether to open an inquiry into judge Juan Carlos Peinado for his order regarding Begoña Gómez, in which he withdrew her passport with the argument that her escorts could help her in an eventual escape. The body met this Sunday extraordinarily and remotely, but decided to postpone the debate until this Monday.

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.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado sends Begoña Gómez, wife of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, to trial and revokes her passport. The magistrate resolved this Saturday the request for precautionary measures made by the popular accusers in Monday's hearing. Thus, Gómez will not be able to accompany Sánchez on international trips. In addition to the passport revocation, he also prohibits her from leaving the State and obliges her to report to the court every fifteen days. These are the measures requested by Hazte Oír, the ultra entity that groups the popular accusers, because they considered there was a risk of flight. However, they did not request preventive detention. Peinado also accepts the same precautionary measures for Begoña Gómez's advisor, Cristina Álvarez.

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.

Spanish political life has a quite explicit calendar this week: yesterday Begoña Gómez, President Sánchez's wife, declared before the judge; today the director general of the Civil Guard declares in the Senate about her contacts with Leire Díez, and tomorrow Zapatero has to declare for influence peddling and money laundering for having acted as an intermediary in the rescue of the airline company Plus Ultra, even though the former Spanish president has asked the judge for more days to defend himself regarding the origin of the jewels, which now turn out to have a value exceeding one million euros. It is a hellish moment for the PSOE.The judge must decide whether to withdraw Begoña Gómez's passport, because he does not want her to leave Spain as he believes there is a risk of flight, while from the Civil Guard's investigation into the PSOE's sewers it appears that Santos Cerdán ordered all of Leire Díez's trips to be approved without any verification and that “nobody knows what was happening in Cerdán’s office”. Contacts in Madrid tell me that most ministers are devastated, and that Sánchez is holding on because he is risking his life or, at least, his freedom. You already know the Catalan drift of this panorama: Salvador Illa is a close friend of Sánchez and, right now, he is the only socialist leader with weight in Spain.And in the meantime, what is Illa doing? Yesterday the president signed a new pact of these that he likes so much, this time with employers and unions, to relaunch industry, so that in three and a half years, by 2030, industry represents 25% of Catalonia's GDP. It does not currently reach 20% in an economy, like ours, heavily tilted towards the service sector.Catalonia is still an industrial country, and it began to be so more than a century ago. I mean that there are realities that are not improvised, and now Illa returns to a very Pujolista narrative of Catalonia as an engine through industrial growth. On Friday I heard the president in La Seu d'Urgell, at the Business Meeting in the Pyrenees. He spoke to them about that association of the Four Motors for Europe from Pujol's era, created in 1988: Catalonia (Barcelona), Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart), Lombardy (Milan), and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Lyon). Illa spoke to the businessmen about confidence, about the value of a public health system like Catalonia's, and even about Christian humanism. It was a speech of institutional and constitutional normality, without political adventures, very focused on reviving the country's economic potential through innovation, external openness, and exports, in a tone reminiscent of Pujol's, with the difference that 23 years have passed since Pujol stepped down as president. Illa speaks of the country's economic future like a convergent, perhaps because he aspires to win re-election from convergent centrality, now that the rose on the fist is withered and threatened and that the heirs of Convergence are trapped with the leader still in exile.Good morning.

A bus from Hazte Oír passes in front of the instruction courts of Plaza Castilla in Madrid announcing the good news: Begoña Gómez, wife of Pedro Sánchez, indicted for four crimes. A dozen people with Spanish flags and banners of "Corrupt Sánchez" shout and applaud as it passes, while about twenty journalists keep watch at the doors of the building with a large police presence. This Monday was a key day for the judicial case affecting the wife of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez: Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has summoned Begoña Gómez for a hearing prior to a possible jury trial and, furthermore, has asked the parties if they wanted to take precautionary measures. Hazte Oír, which groups the popular accusations, has requested the withdrawal of the president's wife's passport and that she be prevented from leaving the country because they believe there is a risk of flight, in addition to the obligation to report to the court every fifteen days and financial measures to prevent her from using the companies under suspicion. However, it has not requested preventive detention.

It was April 24, 2024, on the eve of the campaign for the Catalan Parliament elections, when Pedro Sánchez dropped a bombshell on social media. A letter to the citizens in which he confessed to being "deeply in love with his wife" and wondered if it was worth going forward after learning that proceedings had been opened against Begoña Gómez in a court. He took five days to reflect, during which many assumed he would resign... but he stayed. He decided to resist. The reader may wonder why this episode is being brought up now, but there is an explanation: it was during this period of reflection that Judge Santiago Pedraz places the beginning of the new judicial front that since this Wednesday the PSOE faces.

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.

After the investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado has closed the investigation of the case and has left Begoña Gómez one step away from trial, it is the turn of the accusers to request the sentence. This is what the ultra platform Hazte Oír has done this Monday, which acts as a popular accuser in the proceedings along with Manos Limpias, and demands 24 years in prison for crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling, business corruption, and misappropriation. This is evident from a document to which ARA has had access and which the lawyer for Hazte Oir has presented to the court. Precisely because of the high request for a custodial sentence, it asks for the passport of Pedro Sánchez's wife to be withdrawn due to the risk of flight.

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.

The Spanish government is usually prudent when it has to comment on the judiciary, but there are two exceptions: the case of the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, in which they defended his innocence until the end, and the case of the Spanish president's wife, Begoña Gómez, who this Monday Judge Juan Carlos Peinado brought a step away from trial. This Tuesday, up to three ministers have closed ranks with Pedro Sánchez's wife and have even insinuated that there is political persecution. Moreover, they have reaffirmed that everything will be corrected by higher authorities. "We are in a state of law and not in the regime of Ferran VII," said the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, alluding to the reference that Peinado made in his ruling comparing the Spanish government to an absolutist regime.

The political chronicle continues to be a judicial chronicle, with the trials continuing against Jorge Fernández Díaz and the patriotic police leadership, against Ábalos and Koldo, and against the Pujol family.

Two years after initiating the investigationthat triggered the famous five days of reflection for Pedro Sánchez, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has decided to close the investigation into Begoña Gómez, bringing her a step closer to trial for four crimes. She is accused of influence peddling, embezzlement, business corruption, and misappropriation. The magistrate believes that her status as the Spanish president's wife served "to influence" and allowed her "access to exceptional institutional dialogues".Hours after the decision, the Spanish president has again indirectly accused the magistrate of engaging in politics. One of the key points of Peinado's thesis is the solicitation of funds for the chair that Sánchez's wife co-directed at the Complutense University of Madrid, which is at the epicenter of the case. The judge states that Gómez sought the funds "ostensibly" for the project, but that – in reality – they were to "be integrated into her personal assets".

The Madrid Provincial Court has issued another warning to Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. The judge, who has been investigating Begoña Gómez for almost two years, surprised everyone last September by deciding that the case should be tried by a jury. Pedro Sánchez's wife, his advisor at the Moncloa Palace, and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés—with the support of the Public Prosecutor's Office—opposed this decision, and now the Madrid Provincial Court has ruled in their favor. It considers that the rulings issued by the investigating judge lack the "necessary justification" and fail to present a narrative that includes "plausible evidence," which "violates the right to effective judicial protection." The court argues that this prevents the parties from "sufficiently understanding the reasons for the decision." Consequently, it has overturned four of Judge Peinado's rulings and returned the proceedings to their previous stage.

Juan Carlos Peinado has become one of the most high-profile and controversial judges in this legislative session. His determination to investigate Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez's wife, for influence peddling, business corruption, practicing law without a license, misappropriation, and embezzlement of public funds has put him in the crosshairs of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and the Moncloa Palace (the Prime Minister's residence). Other parties within the plurinational majority, such as Sumar and ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), have also criticized him, attributing his actions to political motivations. On what basis does the Madrid investigating judge base one of the cases that are plaguing the Spanish president?

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado is keeping his case against Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, alive. This Wednesday, the magistrate rejected the motion to dismiss the case and made another move: he has charged another official from the Moncloa Palace, the current Secretary General of the Presidency and former Director of the Department of Technical and Legal Coordination, Judit Alexandra González Pedraz. Peinado has summoned her to testify on November 12, at which time he will inform her of the charges against her and that she is being investigated for embezzlement. One aspect of this case is the hiring of Gómez's former advisor, Cristina Álvarez, for which the magistrate has also charged Álvarez herself, Begoña Gómez, and the Spanish government's delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín Aguirre, who previously held a position in the Presidency. The judge's argument is that the hiring of this advisor, paid for with public funds, actually served to manage Begoña Gómez's private affairs. To justify this charge, in the ruling made public this Wednesday, the judge cites the judgment in the embezzlement case. Peinado explains that embezzlement is not only that defined in Article 432 of the Penal Code, which is also "the most common," and which refers to "appropriating, with the intent to profit, or allowing a third party to do so with the same intent, public assets under one's charge." He recalls that the judgment in the embezzlement case also invoked the possibility of "eventual misappropriation," that is, when public funds are managed in a "disloyal" manner. Peinado, in this regard, cites one of the excerpts from the judgment in the trial: "The crime of embezzlement of public funds, subject to a significant reform introduced by Organic Law 1/2015 of March 30, now punishes not only misappropriation or theft, but also the disloyal administration of public funds." In this sense, he recalls that other judgments have established that this type of embezzlement "condemns the conduct of the authority or public official in charge of public assets who, breaking the bonds of fidelity and loyalty incumbent upon them by virtue of their position and abusing the powers of their office, causes harm to the assets under their administration." Thus, he adds that this type of embezzlement includes actions such as "the improper assumption of obligations," which is what he believes occurred in the Begoña Gómez case. The Foreign Ministry example

Peinado cites as an example the conviction of Raül Romeva, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, for failing to comply with the Constitutional Court's orders and preventing "the use of public funds for the illegal referendum and, above all, the uncontrolled use of public resources for this same purpose." According to the judge, the ruling in the Catalan independence trial did not condemn "the normal operation of Diplocat"—which the Minister of Foreign Affairs controlled—nor the opening of delegations abroad, but rather "the blatant disloyalty of using public funds to cover the expenses incurred as a result of a referendum."

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The Madrid Court puts Judge Juan Carlos Peinado at his feet, who wanted to send Begoña Gómez to two jury trialsThe court ruled this Thursday that the separation of the case against the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister into two parts is "premature and unfounded" and reversed it. Following this setback, there is currently only one case against Gómez, and the investigating judge must decide whether to further justify the separation of the part for embezzlement related to the hiring of Gómez's assistant at the Moncloa Palace, Cristina Álvarez, or whether to incorporate it into the main part. The ruling by which the embezzlement claim was submitted to the jury, therefore, also automatically falls.

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Judge Juan Carlos Peinado wants to send the entire remainder of the Begoña Gómez case to a jury. The investigating judge issued a new order this Thursday summoning the wife of the Spanish president, businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, and Moncloa aide Cristina Álvarez to appear in court next Monday at 5:30 p.m., as he did with the first part that was being referred to a jury. However, those involved, They sent their lawyers. "That those under investigation be duly summoned and made aware that they must necessarily appear with their lawyer," Peinado writes, after last Saturday's standoff.

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We are living in such an uncertain period of political life that almost any unusual development can become credible news. And some are true. Everything that happens in the judicial sphere related to politics is part of this chapter. That an alleged case of embezzlement ends up in the hands of a jury is hard to believe. Perhaps there has been a precedent, but with little resonance. In the case of Begoña Gómez, the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who would be the person tried by nine citizens, nothing is a coincidence. I was told that on Wednesday morning, when the news of the ruling by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is overseeing this case, broke, the Prosecutor's Office was full of all kinds of comments, but with the common denominator of disbelief. Especially because no one believes in coincidences anymore.

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