The WhatsApp chat that planned to torpedo the judicial case against Sánchez's brother
The Guardia Civil discovers a WhatsApp group called 'VACATIONS AND TRIPS' where Leire Díez and three other members coordinated actions against judge Beatriz Biedma.
The 'VACATIONS AND TRIPS' group and the strategy to paralyse a court in Badajoz
A WhatsApp group created on 23 August 2024 under the name VACATIONS AND TRIPS has ended up in a Guardia Civil report, according to El País. Its four members—former Socialist activist Leire Díez, former judge expelled from the judiciary in 2022 Luis Sáenz de Tejada, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and former president of Badajoz Football Club Joaquín Parra—were not discussing beaches or trips. The real objective of the chat was, according to the agents, to torpedo the judicial case investigating the brother of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
"My priority in all of this: the president," Díez wrote in one of the messages in the group. The phrase sums up the purpose that the Guardia Civil attributes to the chat.
The origin: a complaint from Manos Limpias in 2024
To understand the context, it is necessary to go back to 28 May 2024. That day, the pseudo-union Manos Limpias filed a complaint in Badajoz regarding alleged nepotism by the president's brother at the provincial council in 2017, when Sánchez had just won the primary elections for the general secretaryship of the PSOE and had not yet taken office as President of the Government. The courts began investigations to determine whether there was preferential treatment and whether the post was created exclusively for him. The case fell under the investigation of judge Beatriz Biedma.
Three months after that complaint, the VACATIONS AND TRIPS group was set up. According to the Central Operational Unit (UCO), which investigates alleged serious crimes at the national level, Díez met with businessmen and people affected by other legal cases and offered them assistance. Joaquín Parra, one of the members of the chat and under investigation in the oil smuggling scandal, told the Guardia Civil last week that Díez offered him assistance in the proceedings affecting him.
When asked why she was doing this, Parra recounted that Díez replied: "When you suffer from injustices in your own flesh, when they accuse your wife and your brother, then you realise that there is a need to clean up."
The coordinated strategy described by Díez
On 27 August 2024, four days after creating the group, Díez laid out the details of her plan to the other members. "We have been working on this for months [...] far beyond media actions and all that. Truly, it is all perfectly coordinated, but to refine the strategy I need to see what evidence I have. That is fundamental. Because the actions, complaints and so on are going to depend on that, without prejudice to everything we already have in hand and the information we receive from other quarters. I am telling you what has been my priority in all of this: the president, because without that there is nothing else and because it is so obscenely unjust that it is only right to do it."
The message also mentioned a meeting "on Monday". The agents estimate that this date corresponded to 2 September 2024.
The plan against judge Biedma
The Guardia Civil concludes that the group sought to actively paralyse Biedma's investigation. In one of Díez's agendas collected in the UCO's report, it reads: "Badajoz. Four investigating judges. Step 1: Destroy procedure. She got case number 2, which is the one with the least, but she has it."
The strategy envisioned finding someone who would intervene in the case to "cause a paralysis" in the investigation. The reasoning was as follows: if a conflict of interest between Biedma and former judge Sáenz de Tejada—a member of the chat itself—could be established, there would be a ruling that recognised that link and would compromise the impartiality of the case, which could lead to the judge being recused.
Among the options considered by the group were also filing a complaint for breach of confidentiality or taking on the defence of Sánchez's brother, although without specifying who the lawyer would be. Neither of those two alternatives came to fruition.
The complaint prepared by the former judge
What did advance was a formal complaint against Biedma and other judges. Sáenz de Tejada announced it in the chat with a terse message: "Hello, the complaint is prepared as we discussed." Shortly afterwards he sent an audio that began as follows: "Good evening, Leire. Well, I'm commenting. I sent it to you [...] the entire organisation is there, Beatriz Biedma is there, of course [...] Tell me when I should go there to file it and… the matter of the intervention and… the press conference."
Díez forwarded that complaint to the then PSOE Organisation Secretary, Santos Cerdán. Cerdán's response was: "Do not fail in the purchase, if you advance it, credibility would be 100%." The Guardia Civil does not specify in the report what purchase Cerdán was referring to.
The group's silence and internal doubts
Days after the exchange with Cerdán, the group fell silent. On 26 September 2024, Sáenz de Tejada expressed his concern: "Good morning, given the absolute lack of communication, I understand that in the end nothing is going to be done." Parra responded along the same lines: "I think the same. We are too stationary and whoever goes first goes twice."
Díez immediately stepped in to reassure the others. She assured them that everything was still on track and that nothing had been stopped. "We are doing things in a way that they stay secure and there are no surprises [...] The Bad [the agents interpret this as a diminutive of Badajoz] thing they are looking at today and I suppose they will tell me something this afternoon." According to the UCO, Díez modified the complaint initially submitted by the former judge before the group ceased active communication.
Source: El País