Begoña Gómez files a complaint against Judge Peinado for conducting an investigation "perverse and prospective" against her

Begoña Gómez, the wife of the President of the Government, has gone on the attack against Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. Her lawyer has filed a complaint against the magistrate who is investigating her professional activity, accusing him of two crimes: prevarication and disclosure of secrets. She believes that Peinado is carrying out “a perverse and prospective investigation, totally prohibited” against her, in addition to having revealed key data of the case while it was under secrecy of summary.

Gómez’s complaint has been filed before the High Court of Madrid, the same body that already has before it the criminal action filed by the State Attorney’s Office on behalf of Pedro Sánchez, also for a crime of prevarication. In his case, on the grounds that he twisted the Criminal Procedure Law to take his statement as a witness in person at the Moncloa and not in writing, as the law also allows. Gómez also alleges prevarication in this event: “It has had a very important media and social impact, the clear objective of said deployment being to erode or deteriorate the figure of the President of the Government.”

Gómez’s complaint accuses Peinado of launching a “general case” against her, in an “unusual, erratic and prospective” way to investigate the businesswoman’s “whole life.” The judge, says the defense of the wife of the President of the Government, has issued resolutions that are “manifestly unjust, unjustified and without legal protection.” They do not know, she adds, whether to “seek political and social impact” or because of an “excessive desire for media attention” on the part of the judge.

The complaint, which is more than fifty pages long, accuses Peinado of making an “incomprehensible” application of the rules, making contradictory decisions and cutting off the path to appeals, which are processed once the questioned action has already been carried out, putting on the table cases such as that of Judge Elpidio Silva, convicted and disqualified for illegally imprisoning the banker Miguel Blesa.

From the first rulings and orders of the case, the complaint points to the judge’s lack of arguments to promote a cause that they consider prospective and general. From the initial total secrecy of the proceedings while some things were transferred to Vox and other popular accusations, something that was already criticized by the Provincial Court of Madrid, to the incorporation of writings and accusations to the case in an irregular manner.

This preferential treatment of Manos Limpias, HazteOir and other popular accusations is added, according to Gómez’s defense, to another allegation that they have been putting forward for weeks in their appeals: that the investigation against the wife of the President of the Government “is mutating in a way that is not argued or reasoned” acting “in an inquisitorial manner” that is not permitted by Spanish law. He cites as an example when the judge announced that the investigation extended to any fact present in the proceedings referring to the last six years, since Sánchez has been president.

She also complains that in her first statement the judge tried to have her appear as a suspect without informing her of the accusations made by HazteOir on which he bases his proceedings: “The failure to inform her of the actions carried out by the defendant is a constant throughout the proceedings,” the complaint alleges. It also focuses on “strange judicial decisions, which could be described as whims,” such as when she requested a report on the visits of the Prosecutor’s Office to the court or when she called the head of security at the Moncloa to testify.

The complaint devotes several paragraphs to the first summons of businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, when the judge warned Begoña Gómez that she could be arrested if she did not appear in person as evidence had already been prepared. “The news became that our client could be arrested, so the damage, despite the fact that it was absolutely uncertain, had already been done.”

The complaint requests that Juan Carlos Peinado testify as a suspect, but also various proceedings on how the case was handled while it was under summary secrecy, among other evidence.

Revelation of secrets of the cause

The first part of the complaint filed by Antonio Camacho on behalf of Gómez also alleges that, from the beginning, a significant part of the information in the case has been made public, with the proceedings being under confidentiality from the moment they were initiated. He alleges that the High Court of Justice of Madrid itself made public some details of the case and that, even, the lawyer Aitor Guisasola, appearing as a private prosecutor, published some judicial documents on the social network X.

The disclosure of this information, the complaint explains, “has seriously harmed the rights of our client” and in particular the right to defence. While the parties made public the details of the case, Gómez “was unaware of all the details of the investigation” and was subjected to a “penalty in the dock”.

Gómez’s complaint follows the one filed a few days ago by the State Attorney’s Office on behalf of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. A complaint that also accuses Judge Peinado of prevarication, but in this case for the summons of her husband as a witness: the document states that the investigating judge opted to force Sánchez to make a statement in person at the Moncloa when the law allows senior officials such as the President of the Government to appear in writing.

Finally, the complaint alleges that her first court summons came just days before the European elections. “It broke into the electoral campaign, as reported by the media. It may seem like a coincidence, just another one, but analysing all the elements of the judicial decisions together, it is hard to believe that it was just that,” Begoña Gómez alleges.