García Ortiz Requests Annulment of Office Search for Being Disproportionate

Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz has requested the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS) to annul the entry and search conducted in his office at the Attorney General's Office, citing "manifest and notorious disproportion" in the context of the case opened against him for alleged breach of confidentiality.

According to legal sources confirmed to Europa Press, the State Attorney's Office is appealing against the decision of Ángel Luis Hurtado, the case instructor, who initiated proceedings against the Attorney General and the Chief Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid, Pilar Rodríguez, following a complaint by Alberto González Amador, partner of the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Ayuso.

For the State's legal services, these entry and search proceedings, including cloning, dumping, and seizure of mass storage devices, "constitute perhaps the greatest harm (time will tell if irreparable) caused to the Attorney General's Office and the Chief Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid."

It was on October 30 when the case instructor authorised "the intervention and/or copying, in whole or in part, of any type of material or IT and telematic support (including mobile phones) that may have been used or could serve as evidence or proof."

He even authorised the seizure of García Ortiz's mobile phones, "as well as other IT/telematic devices he might carry (tablet, laptop, and others)."

He also approved the extraction of email accounts, social media profiles, or other information repositories on the Internet managed by García Ortiz, in addition to "information contained on servers."

However, he set two limits: one substantive, that the information could relate to the crime of breach of confidentiality under investigation; and another temporal, from March 8 to October 30. This timeframe was later narrowed by the instructor, specifying it was from March 8 to 14.

Sources consulted by this news agency specified that, at least, the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard carried out the complete cloning of two mobile phones, a tablet, and several computers.

This move by the State Attorney's Office adds to that of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court (TS), María Ángeles Sánchez Conde, who pointed out in her appeal to the TS on November 5 against the orders authorising the searches conducted in the offices of the Attorney General and the Chief Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid that they were null because they did not contain "a narrative of the facts considered criminal."

It should be recalled that González Amador took the case to court over a note issued on March 14 by the Prosecutor's Office, which reported the exchange of emails between his lawyer and the case prosecutor in his ongoing case for tax offences to negotiate an agreement.

The Supreme Court, however, did not find any crime in the press release but focused on previous leaks about those 'emails' to the media.