The indiscriminate cloning of the attorney general’s cell phone: an unprecedented and unprecedented measure due to a leak

Supreme Court Judge Ángel Hurtado gave an unusual order this Wednesday: to intervene all the content of the computers, mobile phone and tablet of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. At 9:17 in the morning, the high court reported that the judge had asked him to find a lawyer to defend himself in the case opened against him for the alleged leak of an email related to the tax fraud investigation of Alberto González Amador, his partner. by Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Two hours later, at 11:18 a.m., the magistrate sent the UCO to his office in search of evidence about that alleged leak that he is investigating as a crime of revealing secrets.

For ten hours, Civil Guard agents cloned the attorney general’s computer equipment. Hurtado’s order authorized them to copy them “in their entirety” as of March 8, 2024: conversations, photographs, videos, agenda, contacts, geolocation indicators… An enormous amount of information that, given his status as the highest representative of the Public Ministry, may include sensitive data on ongoing judicial proceedings and even relevant state secrets. The decision caused discontent in judicial circles, where the proportionality of an unprecedented measure in democracy is questioned and which, in addition, deviates from the actions of the courts in other investigations into alleged revelations of secrets.