The state attorney general denies the accusations of revealing secrets

The oral hearing began with the reading by the court clerk of the order to open the trial, which the Attorney General, dressed in a robe, followed attentively with a pen in his hand with which he took notes repeatedly.

Following this, the presiding judge, Andrés Martínez Arrieta, declared the trial open and immediately asked the Attorney General: "Mr. García Ortiz, do you consider yourself responsible for the crimes you are charged with? " "No," the Attorney General replied from the bench, where he was seated to the right of the state attorneys representing him.

Following this, the preliminary issues phase began, in which the private prosecution brought by Díaz Ayuso's partner, and other prosecutions, requested the inclusion as evidence of communications between a journalist from Cadena Ser and the lawyer for González Amador who proposed the agreement, as well as an article from El País .

The prosecution , which is seeking acquittal, has also spoken out to denounce violations of fundamental rights, specifically the inviolability of the home and the secrecy of communications, as well as the right to an impartial judge, and has presented several documents, such as certification that the controversial email is still in the generic address of the Economic Crimes Prosecutor's Office.

For its part, the State Attorney's Office , which also alleges violations of rights, has filed up to seven preliminary issues, including an expert opinion that concludes that it is not possible to determine what messages the Attorney General deleted from his device on October 16 - the day the case was opened.

He also asked to include tweets from Díaz Ayuso's chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez , or a radio program that connects the version he was spreading with the information from El Mundo that attributed the initiative of the pact to the Prosecutor's Office, and not the other way around.

Accusations

García Ortiz is accused of leaking the email in which, on February 2, 2024, the defense attorney for Alberto González Amador, partner of the president of the Community of Madrid, offered prosecutor Julián Salto a plea deal in which he admitted to two tax offenses on behalf of his client in exchange for a reduced sentence. This businessman remains under investigation for these events.

For García Ortiz, the accusations - González Amador's private case and six public ones - are requesting between 4 and 6 years in prison and up to 12 years of disqualification, while the Prosecutor's Office argues that there is no crime and, like the State Attorney's Office, asks for acquittal.

State attorney Consuelo Castro , who is defending García Ortiz, has requested the annulment of several actions and denounced the violation of his fundamental rights during the investigation.

The defense argues that the principle of equality of arms was violated during the investigation and that all the proceedings carried out were aimed at proving the guilt of the accused, with more incriminating proceedings being carried out than exculpatory ones, given that most of those requested by the defense were rejected.

In the preliminary proceedings, García Ortiz's defense considered the declaration of secrecy of the proceedings for one month null and void due to "absolute lack of motivation" and also requested the annulment of the search in the office of the Attorney General, which he judged to be "disproportionate and an attack on his privacy".

Castro insisted that during the investigation there was a "blatant and serious violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution," which forced the Attorney General to appeal the ruling "blindly." Therefore, he believes that everything stemming from that search should be declared null and void, including the UCO reports and the letters rogatory sent to Ireland and the United States to trace the deleted messages, which, moreover, were unsuccessful since they could not be recovered.

García Ortiz's defense team spoke out strongly against the investigating judge, Ángel Hurtado , claiming that he conducted an "inquisitorial" and "prospective" investigation, subjecting him to an "unfair process" that began under the premise that the "investigated party was guilty."

In these preliminary matters, the State Attorney's Office presented an expert report refuting the UCO's report on the deletion of García Ortiz's mobile phone. The agents concluded that the deletion occurred on October 16, the date on which the Supreme Court formally opened the investigation, and suggested that the messages exchanged on March 13, the day on which the leak allegedly occurred, could have been deleted.

According to the report, it is impossible to know what content was deleted on October 16, so the UCO's deduction is not based on data. Furthermore, Castro has requested new documentary evidence, such as tweets disseminated by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Chief of Staff to the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; tweets from El Mundo journalist Esteban Urreiztieta in which he only mentioned two tax offenses; conversations in the courts' chat room; the "offensive" emails that, according to his defense, forced the Attorney General to close his email account; and the transcript and audio of an EsRadio program in which Esteban Urreiztieta participated, presenting "the version disseminated by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez."

After the reading of the indictment and the accusation documents, the president of the Court, Andrés Martínez-Arrieta, began the hearing and addressed García Ortiz to ask him: "Do you consider yourself responsible for the crimes you are charged with?", to which the defendant responded with a curt "no".

For his part, González Amador's lawyer requested that two documents be admitted as evidence. These are two WhatsApp messages from Miguel Ángel Campos (a journalist with Cadena Ser radio) on the night the email was leaked. These messages are between Campos and Carlos Neira, González Amador's lawyer. Also requested is the article by Juan José Mateo in El País , published on the 14th at 7:00 p.m., which summarizes the content of the email.