The Madrid judge Juan Carlos Peinado has been the one who has shaken the continuity of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government by opening preliminary proceedings in record time for a complaint from Clean Hands, a pseudo-union called into question for its unethical practices - he came to being convicted of extortion although he was later acquitted by the Supreme Court -, and preventing the Prosecutor's Office from being able to rule on it.
According to legal sources, the complaint reached his court on April 16 and on the 23rd, that is, just one week later, the instructor agreed to carry out a series of procedures to analyze in the first instance the veracity of the complaint. The first thing he has done was to summon the directors of the two media outlets that have published news about possible favorable treatment for businessmen for their links with Begoña Gómez.
The two journalists will testify on May 10 and from then on the judge will decide whether to continue with the complaint against Gómez or file the proceedings.
Legal sources recognize that the judge has acted with such speed that he has not even notified the Prosecutor's Office to report on the relevance of these proceedings. Prosecutor's sources maintain that they learned of the complaint and the judicial proceedings yesterday through the press.
Peinado's actions have already been repeated on other occasions, for example when he decided to accuse a group of journalists for publishing information about the CDR summary that was being investigated in the National Court. He intended to prosecute these journalists for a crime of revealing secrets against prosecutorial criteria. Finally, and after the Police carried out certain procedures such as questioning some of the editors by telephone, he decided to close the matter.
The hype that has been given to this matter has been as a result of the reaction of the President of the Government, who after learning of the instructor's actions announced that he will consider for a few days whether to resign from office due to the harassment suffered by his family. and the same.
The most surprising thing for the socialist environment is that the judge has acted like this only with a mere complaint from Clean Hands. Even legal sources explain that the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court establishes that an investigation cannot be opened solely with journalistic information and without other indicative elements.
The complaint consists of seven pages and is based on information from El Confidencial, a medium that yesterday Pedro Sánchez referred to as "far-right." In the writing he also referred to other news from media such as Voz Populi, Es Diario and The Objective, the latter in an article confusing Gómez with a woman from Burgos.
Clean Hands itself and its general secretary, Miguel Bernad, acknowledged this Thursday in a statement the possibility that said information is false. "It will now be the Investigating Judge who must verify whether said journalistic information is true or not. If it is not true, it will be those who published it who must assume the falsehood, but if they are not uncertain, we understand that the judicial case must continue" says the Clean Hands statement.
The complaint is against Gómez for a crime of influence peddling. According to the union, taking advantage of her status as the wife of the President of the Government, she has been recommending by letter to businessmen who receive public works tenders. She gives the example of a businessman, Carlos Barrabés, who received 10 million in public funds.
He said that the businessman in question set up a master's degree in which Begoña Gómez participated. According to the complainant, the letters of recommendation triggered the tenders to the businessmen, who had a friendly relationship.
Always based on journalistic news, the complaint also links Gómez with Víctor Aldama, one of the businessmen investigated in the so-called Koldo case, for having received million-dollar contracts from public companies linked to the Ministry of Transportation for the sale of masks in full pandemic.
Clean Hands is a pseudo-union accused of extorting banks, companies and even Infanta Cristina de Borbón. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court acquitted its general secretary, Miguel Bernard, on the grounds that they put pressure with complaints and complaints, but failed to intimidate.
Bernad, through this far-right organization, was using the courts for years to go against political leaders and businessmen. The Prosecutor's Office's accusation was based on the union of the union with Ausbanc, chaired by Luis Pineda, to obtain money through advertising or sponsorships in this economic magazine in the face of the threat of launching a smear campaign through complaints.
However, the Supreme Court has deflated all the accusations, giving free rein to Clean Hands to re-emerge to continue the operation developed for years. In fact, after the high court ruling, Bernard went to a press conference to announce his official return.
