Alvaro Garcia Ortiz He assured this Wednesday that He is “neither investigated nor charged.” This is how the State Attorney General expressed himself this Wednesday night in an interview in RTVE in reference to the car Supreme Court which was made public in the morning and in which, although he has not yet been summoned to testify as an investigator, he is accused of an alleged crime of revealing secrets of which the Madrid president’s partner accuses him, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
According to García Ortiz, who has been interviewed by Xavier Fortes in The night in 24 hours“what the car says is that the Supreme Court is he only competent to initiate an investigation for the leak of some emails against the State Attorney General.” Specifically, the high court states in its report that the crime for which it is being investigated is related to the issuance of a press release published on the letterhead of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Madrid on March 14 and focuses on the leak to the media in the days before this of information taken from some emails.
The statement was related to the case in which Ayuso’s partner is being investigated, Alberto González Amadorfor alleged crimes of tax fraud and document falsification. In the days prior to the issuance of the note, several journalistic reports came to light about a alleged agreement that the Prosecutor’s Office negotiated with González Amador to avoid an eventual prison sentence if he was finally prosecuted and convicted of these crimes. Information that would have come from the leak of some email messages.
Thus, García Ortiz has reported that he I was unaware of the existence of such emails and that when he found out that a media outlet had them, that was when he requested them. Furthermore, the attorney general has made it clear that his decision not to resign, as the PP has demandedis given because he did not filter those emails. “Yes, I have taken responsibility for the content of the press release. As you understand, the State Attorney General does not send emails at night,” he said. “In an institution such as the Prosecutor’s Office there have been many people who have known the content of that information,” he added, without wanting to go into whether the Supreme Court’s investigation will also have to be directed at the rest of the workers who accessed the messages.
“I would make the note again”
Furthermore, with respect to the press release issued in March, García Ortiz has indicated that ““The only purpose was to disprove a hoax.”. In his opinion, “it makes no sense to make a press release and, at the same time, leak some emails” and he stated that “I would do that press release again”. “I would be a fool if I said I knew what was going to happen, I would do the same, since the repercussions have been undesirable depending on what I was looking for when doing it,” he added, repeating that there was a information that was not true, “that compromised the work of the Prosecutor’s Office” and that this “needed an institutional response” to deny it.
The presenter has put on the table that after the controversy it was said that the origin of the information cited “sources close to the defense” of Ayuso’s partnerthus pointing to González Amador’s lawyers. “That’s what the Prosecutor’s Office says, but not me.. Since the beginning of the case I have not had any participation in the writings. I stepped aside, that is not in the mouth of the attorney general and as an investigator in the procedure I must refrain from making any further comments,” García Ortiz stated.
García Ortiz, furthermore, wanted to take away the fact that there was talk of a possible pact with Ayuso’s partner. “Conformity is a benefit for the prisoner. When someone conforms they accept a benefit. I don’t know what harm it is that there is a benefit.“, he pointed out, while asking to value the work of judges and prosecutors. “In our courts every day, many, thousands, are given sentences in accordance. Trials are postponed due to conformity, they are held in front of the judges and then they do not go forward…The professionalism of the judges is impeccable when evaluating this.”
“Feeling of helplessness”
The prosecutor did not want to go into whether everything that is happening is a case of lawfare or “if he is persecuted” regarding this cause. “One of the reasons why the attorney general must remain in his position is to defend the integrity of the institutions, so I absolutely cannot think that the Supreme Court has any kind of perspective other than the analysis of the facts and the right to see the cause.”
García Ortiz believes that “the responsibility of the position” must support certain persecutions and added that prosecutors handle a large amount of information. “If I wanted to harm a certain political spectrum, I have information. more than that, of course, I will never use,” he added, to emphasize that “the responsibility of the State Attorney General is to remain neutral and impartial, which is why he cannot engage in political attacks; That is why it is very easy for it to be the object of attacks by different media, politicians… the feeling is helplessness“.
García Ortiz, throughout the interview, has repeated on several occasions that The state attorney general “has a lot of power” and that it is legitimized by the Government itself and that is why it does not feel that it is in inferior conditions when it comes to defending itself.
The decision made by the Supreme Court this Wednesday is unprecedented in this democracy. The high court will investigate whether the State Attorney General and the chief prosecutor of the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, Pilar Rodríguez, and will seek to find out who leaked the emails. It will also investigate the press release related to this matter. For its part, since Popular party has demanded that García Ortiz step aside. “It cannot continue to contaminate everything that the Prosecutor’s Office does in our country,” they have asserted.
