“In my papers you can see it,” said Leticia de la Hoz, already without desire, almost defeated. It was his umpteenth attempt to prove to the Supreme Court that the payments in cash were not such. As an example, nine settlement sheets “without concept”, “or date” but “signed” by up to three responsible parties that allowed his client to recover more than 4,000 euros of the expenses he had anticipated. On the other hand, that of the court itself, always the same answer: no, no and no. “Ask for facts, not for hypotheses or evaluations,” Judge Andrés Martínez Arrieta stubbornly repeated.
The lawyer had started off excited, like someone who knew they were a winner. His ace in the hole were those handful of papers that he asked to reproduce on the living room screen to display them to the greater glory of his legal astuteness. The fiasco came soon. “This is prepared before.” First warning from Martínez Arrieta. “It’s just that I hadn’t thought about it, it’s because of the witness’s questions,” she justified. From there, from bad to worse. That the documents cannot be seen, that where they were taken from, that the witness is going to say what. Despite everything, De la Hoz gained strength from his weakness and returned to the fray. That they are real settlements from García, that he has duly contributed them to the case, that no party has challenged them.
And so much effort for what? To try to prove that through those cracks the former advisor could have obtained hard cash that the PSOE did not have located but that was perfectly legal. “Is it possible…?” she asked. “There are many possibilities,” the magistrate stopped. “Well, he said that among his duties was to see if the expenses were reasonable. Were 4,000 euros reasonable?” De la Hoz composed himself, attacking from another flank. “Man, they have eaten a suckling pig…”, answered the witness, also already lost. It seems that there is. And could Koldo have access to the 127,000 euros annual budget that the Organization Secretariat had to reimburse expenses? What budget are you talking about? Not there anymore. And Martínez Arrieta cuts you short, like a tailor, in practically every question. The lawyer, now barely without resources, fired the 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 man, everything was “guesses.”
It took an hour of interrogation and a fifteen-minute break for the lawyer to hit the target. It has already been with the following witness, . Not without effort, De la Hoz has managed to extract the fact that the advisor was in charge of the settlement sheet that was attributed to the entire Organization Secretariat. And that was a few bills and coins. “Good, good,” the lawyer celebrated. “So…?” he said. “You have already answered,” the magistrate cut off. “It’s just to be clear,” she feinted. “It is already clear to the Court, but do not raise more questions that only drag on,” he concluded. And the lawyer surrendered weapons. Something had been scratched at least. Shot of coffee to celebrate. Next witness.
“I demand the same treatment!”
This melee was not new. He drank from seven other sessions where the clash between the court and the defense has gone growing up and, finally, it has exploded in a day that was already expected to be high tension to clarify what the “chistorras”, the “lettuces” and the “suns” of which the alleged plot spoke. Inertia has ended up dominating the day and the magistrate was already interrupting, correcting and clarifying everyone, even , who was trying to catch the former chief of staff of the Treasury in a resignation due to a lawsuit never filed against his client, . “I demand the same treatment!” the lawyer reacted quickly. “The classmate is making evaluations,” he criticized, savoring each letter. “But what was the question?” the president redirected. “I don’t remember anymore,” Choclán confessed.
The virus has infected Alejandro Luzón himself, the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, a serious position that he wears with the precise pose. “Let me finish!” he shouted at another witness, the former Secretary of State for Transportation Pedro Saura. He even waved him off with his little hand. “The thing is, if you interrupt me with the question halfway…”, he later sweetened. The truth is that Saura, with his eternal answers, his praise for public service and some incoherence – Aldama was the same as the president of Zamora and that “third person” – has given the coup de grace to the court and to all those present. “That’s it. Short questions and short answers, let’s see if it’s possible,” implored Martínez Arrieta. And there was still the afternoon session.
