González withholds messages with the 'plumber' from Senate despite knowledge of operation against the UPO
The head of the Guardia Civil did not explain why she contacted Leire Díaz knowing she was plotting to discredit the UPO. The UPO detected automatic message deletion.
Head of Guardia Civil avoids explaining her contacts with 'plumber' Leire Díaz
Mercedes González, director of the Guardia Civil, yesterday evaded answering key questions in the Senate stemming from the latest report presented by the Central Operational Unit (UPO) before the judge investigating the Ferraz sewers scandal. According to El Mundo, González neither clarified the content of the messages she exchanged with Leire Díaz, known as the 'plumber', nor why she maintained that contact after being informed of the manoeuvres to undermine the reputation of the UPO.
The chronology detailed in the supplementary report
The contact between both figures in the supplementary report submitted to the National Audience judge Santiago Pedraz. The document details the chronology of one of three internal investigations opened against the UPO at the decision of the director herself. That investigation was launched following publication in El Mundo of messages exchanged between the Government president, Pedro Sánchez, and then minister and PSOE organisational secretary José Luis Ábalos.
On 11 May last year, González and Leire Díaz made contact via WhatsApp at 9.16 a.m. That information emerges from two automatic messages found on Díaz's seized telephone. The UPO investigators stress that González knew, 'at least from 8 May', that her interlocutor had launched an operation to undermine the force's image.
Two internal notes that had already alerted the leadership
Several elements attest to that prior knowledge. The main one is that the Deputy Operational Director (DAO), Manuel Llamas, had informed González of the first internal note on the 'plumber's' activities. This was confirmed by Llamas himself to the head of the Guardia Civil's Judicial Police, Alfonso López Malo. The note had been prepared by the Information service on 29 April.
On 5 May, it was the UPO itself that drew up a second internal note alerting to the same movements, which it passed to the Judicial Police. Three days later, the head of the Judicial Police raised the matter with the DAO and indicated that the director should be informed, given that González was mentioned in the document. The DAO responded that she was already aware of the first note.
The meal bet and messages with the lawyer in the Koldo case
On 9 May, Leire Díaz exchanged messages with the lawyer for Koldo García, Leticia de la Hoz, also under investigation. The lawyer accused the UPO of leaking information about Ábalos's former adviser and wrote to Díaz: 'Pass it to Mercedes to see what she thinks'. Díaz's reply was: 'I've just passed it to her', adding that she had just 'bet a meal with Mercedes that the leaks come from the UPO'.
Two days later, the chat between the director and the protagonist of the two internal notes was reactivated. The first of those notes contained 'reliable' information that the operation included 'not only attacking procedurally the investigation being conducted by the UPO, but doing so against the investigators, personalising injurious accusations against them, and requesting any kind of compromising material for that purpose'.
The same document, of which the DAO had informed González, noted that 'the said group of people would make it appear that behind this 'strategy' was Mr Santos Cerdán, with the General Director of the Guardia Civil also having knowledge of it'.
The Senate without answers and automatic message deletion
Despite express questions posed in the Upper House, González also did not reveal what matters she discussed with Leire Díaz after receiving the alert report. On the meal bet, González made a brief denial in the Senate: 'I don't eat meals'.
Regarding the two automatic traces of WhatsApp found in the chat between both on the morning of 11 May, the UPO points out that the first 'is compatible with a previous conversation having been deleted' and with a 'new one having been initiated', which would correspond precisely to the one referring to that bet. The second trace, according to the UPO, 'is indicative that on that date and at that time, the General Director of the Guardia Civil activated automatic message deletion in the conversation between both, with a 24-hour deletion period'.
Source: El Mundo