The organization led by Santos Cerdán orchestrated to destroy judicial cases had a dual aspect. On one hand, to look for dirty laundry against investigators of matters affecting the PSOE or the environment of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. And on the other, as a counterattack, to look for scandals or irregularities of their political rivals, especially the Popular Party.
What emerges from the case being investigated by the National Court judge Santiago Pedraz is that Leire Díez, right hand of Cerdán and former party Organization Secretary, contacted a former member of Mariano Rajoy’s Government to obtain dirty laundry.
At first glance, going to the political rival was risky. However, in this case the organization knew where to strike. The former Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, former right hand of Jorge Fernández Díaz, was accused in the Kitchen case – a parapolice operation to steal documents from the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas – a trial that is precisely taking place now in the National Court.
In June 2024, when such an approach occurred, Martínez was already accused, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office was asking for 15 years in prison for him, and the party had turned its back on him. Leire Díez, now considered the “plumber” of the PSOE, and her group thought he could be a good contact to provide them with dirty laundry from the Rajoy Government in exchange for legal aid.
“Target of interest”
According to sources close to Martínez, Díez offered him an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to reduce the sentence. Other sources claim that he was even offered to avoid the conviction. The former Secretary of State met twice with the self-proclaimed “spokesperson” of the PSOE for these tasks although no agreement was reached. In the judge’s order, Martínez is described as a “target of interest” for Cerdán’s network.
Pedraz records an audio of the meeting between Díez and Martínez in which the former told him that the information he provided, if any, would be passed “to those who told me to take charge of all this,” adding that they are “on Ferraz street (referring to the PSOE headquarters) connected with the Moncloa Palace, because as you well know, the party of Ferraz governs.”
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The dates are also important. The meeting took place in June 2024 although there is evidence of previous contact. This plumbing operation had started two months earlier, coinciding also with all the negotiations within the party with separatist parties for the amnesty law.
In some way, they sought to uncover new PP scandals to reduce the public tension surrounding the approval of the law of oblivion, an agreement between Sánchez and the separatists in exchange for their support to invest him as president.
Now Pedraz wants to know if any of Martínez’s meetings with Díez were held at the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz street and that is why his name is on the list of people who must be identified in the visitors’ book. However, sources close to the former Secretary of State assure that none of them took place on Ferraz street.
All this information has come to light following the requests ordered yesterday by Pedraz at the PSOE headquarters in search of information about an alleged criminal organization led by Santos Cerdán whose activity consisted of actions to “destabilize” judicial processes, if not “destroy” them by acting against judges, prosecutors, and police officers for that purpose.
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