García Ortiz remains in the position of Attorney General of the State, for the moment.

Álvaro García Ortiz's three years at the head of the State Attorney General's Office have been turbulent, to say the least. His arrival was already turbulent, as he was appointed after the sudden resignation of his predecessor, Dolores Delgado. He was an Environmental Prosecutor in Galicia, but had made a career in the association world, through the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF). It was through the association that he met Delgado, who took him on as his deputy. When the latter, the National Court prosecutor, resigned, García was her natural replacement in a tense mandate because Delgado came from Pedro Sánchez's government as Minister of Justice.

Despite his calm demeanor, García's arrival was not peaceful. The majority Association of Prosecutors and the minority Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF) have not given him any respite and have taken many of his decisions to court. These decisions have found support in the Supreme Court, which has annulled several of his appointments, particularly in his attempt to make Delgado a Chamber Prosecutor—the highest rank—following his resignation. García Ortiz has also failed to find support from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), and his appointment has been deemed unsuitable for the first time.

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The icing on the cake was the opening of an investigation against him for revealing secrets. The Attorney General has consistently maintained that the accusations are unfounded, that he is innocent, and that he has done nothing wrong. And for this very reason, he does not intend to resign, despite the fact that he has been indicted and is one step away from the bench.

In this latest ruling, García Ortiz has been harmed by refusing to answer the judge when he was summoned to testify; by deleting his phone numbers when the investigation against him began, which has prevented us from knowing who he spoke to in the moments leading up to the leak; by following government instructions to "politically exploit" the information he had on the partner of Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso; and by refusing to resign when the criminal case against him was opened.

The opening of an oral trial is pending, and then, according to the regulations of the Public Prosecutor's Office, it will have to be suspended, at least if he wants to be held to the same standard as any other prosecutor.

The regulation, in its article 145, establishes that any member of the prosecutor's career will be suspended "in any case" when an order is issued to open a trial or imprisonment for a crime committed in the exercise of his or her functions or in connection with them,

This suspension may be revoked if the circumstances that led to its adoption change, after hearing from the Standing Committee of the Fiscal Council and, where appropriate, the affected party. "It will be lifted in any case if the case concludes with a judgment of acquittal or an order of dismissal or dismissal," the regulation states.

After learning of the order converting the case into an abbreviated procedure, which could be equivalent to an indictment, that is, the intermediate step between being investigated and being accused, García Ortiz issued a statement reaffirming his "commitment to continue defending the actions and integrity of the institution he represents at the helm" and defending his "innocence."

“The institution's prestige is in question”

Part of the prosecutor's staff has called on him to resign due to the damage caused to the institution by having its highest representative prosecuted. In the court ruling itself, investigating judge Ángel Hurtado reminds him that the alleged leak "calls into question the prestige of the institution, with the resulting damage, considering the constitutional role and function entrusted to the Public Prosecutor's Office."

Furthermore, he maintains that he is bound by principles such as legality and impartiality, "which may be called into question to the extent that his actions are compromised by external indications," referring to the suspicion that García Ortiz acted on the instructions of the President of the Government.

Despite this, García continues to push ahead and refuses to resign. For now, he has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division. If Hurtado's decision is upheld, the next step is the opening of the trial, and there's no turning back.

Depending on how long the Court takes to act, the scenario could involve an indicted State Attorney General, along with the President of the Supreme Court, Isabel Perelló, and King Felipe VI, presiding over the opening of the judicial year, which takes place every year in early September. If García Ortiz is still in office by then, he will read his speech containing the criminalistic data from the Prosecutor's Office's report to the highest representatives of the judiciary.