Begoña Gómez has decided to change her lawyer ahead of a future trial with a popular jury, according to sources close to her. The wife of Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister, has decided to take this step in mutual agreement with Antonio Camacho, the former socialist minister who had been handling her defense until now, according to these same sources, who emphasize that Gómez has already informed the court headed by Juan Carlos Peinado that lawyer Jaime Campaner will assume her representation.
Camacho has been defending Gómez since she was charged in 2024. Sources close to Sánchez’s wife express great gratitude for the lawyer’s work and involvement, who has had intense confrontations with Peinado, who has loaded his rulings with reproaches against him. In fact, the judge even fined him 5,000 euros for making statements to the press, but that sanction was later overturned by the Madrid High Court of Justice because the magistrate had not justified his decision. Since the beginning of the case, Camacho has requested the dismissal of the summary and has suffered enormous public exposure, which even led to a group of ultra agitators harassing him after an appointment at the court of the president’s partner.
“His professional rigor and dedication, in a complex and difficult process, have been fundamental,” insist sources close to Gómez about Camacho. This change of lawyer comes after the Madrid Provincial Court gave the green light for the popular jury trial against Sánchez’s wife to proceed for two crimes: influence peddling and embezzlement. The court partially upheld Peinado’s decision to send her to trial, although it removed two other crimes he had attributed to her (business corruption and misappropriation).
Campaner, a specialist in Criminal Law, has extensive experience in jury trials. He has handled cases with enormous media impact, such as the Nóos case or the Pujol case, where he represented one of the sons of former Catalan president Jordi Pujol in the oral hearing held at the National Court. He has also represented, among others, Luis del Rivero, former president of Sacyr Vallehermoso, in the Villarejo case; Joan Miquel Mut, former chief commissioner of the Palma Local Police, in the Cursach case; Giovanni Di Stefano, former lawyer of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein; and footballer Rafa Mir, tried for sexual assault.
The case against Begoña Gómez is still ongoing in Peinado’s court after the latest ruling from the Madrid Court. The removal of two crimes caused the magistrate to ask the parties to redo their conclusions and adapt them to the limits set by the court. The popular accusation, led by the ultra-Catholic association Hazte Oír, has already done so and reduced its sentence request for Sánchez’s wife (from 24 years of imprisonment to 13 years). The Complutense University of Madrid, appearing as an injured party, claims 113,000 euros. The Prosecutor’s Office has announced that it will request the acquittal of the president’s partner and her assistant at La Moncloa, Cristina Álvarez.
