Cospedal charges against the audios that splash him in Kitchen: "They do not provide new information"

María Dolores de Cospedal, former general secretary of the PP, has charged against what are known as

, the recordings of the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo that splash her for the alleged maneuvers concocted in 2013 to stop the judicial investigation into the box b of the conservative party.

In a letter sent this Tuesday to the National Court, the former politician rejects the request of the popular accusations to charge her again, based on those recordings, in the investigations of

– the espionage operation on Luis Bárcenas, former treasurer of the formation —.

In the audios recorded by Villarejo, Cospedal is heard saying "the little notebook... it would be better to be able to stop it", in alleged reference to

, party accounting b.

The defense of the former general secretary affirms that these audios do not contribute anything new and, in addition, questions their "authenticity".

More information

The Prosecutor's Office renounces appealing the judge's refusal to charge Cospedal with espionage on Bárcenas

Manuel García-Castellón, judge in the

, already refused last September to charge Cospedal again and thus reopen this instruction, which he had concluded in July 2021, leaving the former secretary general out of the case and circumscribing all responsibility of the plot to the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Jorge Fernández Díaz.

The magistrate considered then that the

that dot the former popular leader

published by EL PAÍS and the

, are reduced to "a few minutes of an audio cut of which not only its origin but also any circumstance and context is unknown."

In addition, according to the judge, they do not provide "new facts" to undertake a line of investigation that he himself has already ruled out.

The brief presented by Cospedal's lawyer, Jesús Santos, to which EL PAÍS has had access, moves in that direction.

“The few minutes of audio cuts provide absolutely no new information.

On the contrary, they would corroborate what was already valued by the instructor and by the Chamber when ordering his provisional dismissal: that [Cospedal] had conversations with Villarejo with the exclusive purpose of talking about news in the press (as did her husband, [Ignacio] López de Iron)".

According to the defense, the phrase “the notebook... it would be better to be able to stop it” was simply a “generic comment”.

"What can be inferred from the audio cuts -if they are true- is that Cospedal would externalize a criticism towards the media before the possible publication of certain false facts, without evidence."

In other words, according to his lawyer, he meant that “it would be better to be able to stop the publication in these media of these false and unjustified facts” collected in the

The veracity of those papers was, however, endorsed years later by the National High Court itself.

“In no way would Cospedal appear ordering any type of “guideline” for the purpose of establishing a specific action plan,” adds the lawyer Jesús Santos.

At the same time that he alleges that he only wanted to make generic comments in that conversation, Cospedal questions the recordings themselves.

“The audio cuts provided (which this party does not recognise, neither their content nor their participation) are of dubious authenticity, making it impossible to verify them as the original audio files are not available [...] The manipulations that may have occurred are unknown. suffer from the moment of its creation, which prevents us from being certain about the veracity and integrity of its content,” the letter states.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has already decided not to appeal the judge's refusal to charge Cospedal again, despite the fact that the public ministry maintains that Cospedal was part of Operation Kitchen and is the piece that links the then leadership of the PP with the case.