“It can be seen in my papers,” said Leticia de la Hoz, already weary, almost defeated. It was her umpteenth attempt to prove before the Supreme Court that the strict internal controls that former PSOE manager Mariano Moreno had assured were in place for cash payments were not so. As proof, nine settlement sheets “without concept,” “nor date” but “signed” by up to three officials that allowed her client to recover more than 4,000 euros of the expenses he had advanced. On the other side, that of the court itself, always the same answer: no, no, and no. “Ask about facts, not hypotheses or valuations,” magistrate Andrés Martínez Arrieta stubbornly repeated.
The lawyer had started animatedly, like someone who knows they are a winner. Her ace up her sleeve was that handful of papers she asked to display on the courtroom screen to show off her legal cunning. The fiasco came quickly. “This is prepared beforehand.” First warning from Martínez Arrieta. “I hadn’t thought of it, it’s because of the witness’s questions,” she justified. From then on, it went from bad to worse. The documents couldn’t be seen, where she got them from, what the witness was going to say. Despite everything, De la Hoz mustered strength from weakness and returned to the charge. That they were real settlements from García, that she had duly submitted them to the case, that no party had challenged them.
And all that effort for what? To try to prove that through those cracks the former advisor could have obtained ready cash that the PSOE did not have located but that was perfectly legal. “Is it possible…?” she ventured. “There are many possibilities,” the magistrate cut her off. “Well, he said that among his functions was to see if the expenses were reasonable. Were 4,000 euros reasonable?” De la Hoz recomposed herself, attacking from another flank. “Well, if they ate a suckling pig…” the witness replied, also lost. It seems that way, yes. And could Koldo dispose of the 127,000 euros of annual budget that the Organization Secretariat had to reimburse expenses? What budget are you talking about? Not that way. And Martínez Arrieta kept cutting, like a tailor, practically at every question. The lawyer, with hardly any resources left, fired her last bullet: “The origin of my client’s cash is fundamental for my defense. I am trying to prove that it was legal.” Nothing, there was no way because, for the judge, everything was “conjecture.”
It took an hour of questioning and a fifteen-minute recess for the lawyer to hit the mark. It was with the next witness, the PSOE worker who gave envelopes with cash to Ábalos and García. Not without effort, De la Hoz managed to get her to admit that the advisor was in charge of the settlement sheet that was charged to the entire Organization Secretariat. And that was quite a few banknotes and coins. “Good, good,” the lawyer celebrated. “So…?” she threaded. “He has already answered,” the magistrate cut her off. “It’s to make it clear,” she feigned. “It’s already clear to the Court, but don’t ask any more questions that only prolong things,” he concluded. And the lawyer surrendered. She had at least scratched something. A shot of coffee to celebrate. Next witness.
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“I demand the same treatment!”
This close combat was not new. It stemmed from seven other sessions where the clash between the court and the defense had been in crescendo and, finally, exploded on a day that was already expected to be high tension to clarify the “chistorras,” “lettuces,” and “suns” that the alleged plot spoke of. Inertia ended up dominating the day and the magistrate was already interrupting, correcting, and clarifying everyone, even the highly respected José Antonio Choclán, who was trying to catch the former head of the Treasury cabinet in a slip-up regarding a lawsuit never filed against his client, the alleged fixer Víctor de Aldama. “I demand the same treatment!” the lawyer reacted quickly. “My colleague is making valuations,” she criticized, savoring each letter. “But what was the question?” the president redirected. “I don’t remember anymore,” Choclán confessed.
The virus infected Alejandro Luzón himself, the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, a serious position he wears with precise posture. “Let me finish!” he shouted at another witness, former Secretary of State for Transport Pedro Saura. He even stopped him with his hand. “It’s just that if you interrupt me with the question halfway through…” he later softened. The truth is that Saura, with his eternal answers, his praise for public service, and some inconsistencies —Aldama was both the president of Zamora and the Air Europa lobbyist and that “third person”— delivered the coup de grâce to the court and everyone present. “That’s enough. Short questions and short answers, let’s see if it’s possible,” Martínez Arrieta implored. And the afternoon session was still to come.
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