The expectations of the meeting of the Political Judgment Commission of the Chamber of Deputies were set to analyze a response from the judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, Juan Carlos Maqueda, for the 14 charges that the deputies awarded him for irregularities in the Work of the Nation’s Judiciary (OSPJN). But the courtier once again ignored the appointment that expired yesterday and did not even present a brief to defend himself against the accusations, so the ruling party will advance in the accusation for poor performance.
The deputies then went on to address another of the causes that opened the process to all the members of the Court: the ruling for the co-participation that favored the City of Buenos Aires. By majority, the Frente de Todos requested as evidence to take a voice print of Marcelo D’Alessandro to confirm if the resigned former Buenos Aires Minister of Justice and Security is the one who in the leaked chats on his cell phone maintained a collusion relationship with Silvio Robles, hand right of the president of the Court Horacio Rosatti, who advised him on the strategy so that the courtiers ruled in favor of the CABA. In addition, they agreed to cite Macrista’s former Interior Minister, Rogelio Frigerio, who in an interview acknowledged that Mauricio Macri had transferred to the City a greater amount of financial resources than was appropriate. To avoid electoral suspicions, proclaimed by the opposition, the now candidate for the JxC governorship of Entre Ríos will be summoned after the elections.
The president of the commission, Carolina Gaillard (FdT), opened the meeting to inform that Maqueda did not attend the appointment and did not present a report to respond to the charges that were “provisionally” made against him, due to the irregularities in the OSPJN that he had in charge for 13 years. Meanwhile, a subcommittee headed by Deputy Vanesa Siley (FdT), will advance on the other two periods in the management of the social work of the judicial officers that were in charge of the Supreme Court Ricardo Lorenzetti and Rosatti. “The non-submission of Maqueda’s report does not prevent the proceeding from continuing,” Gaillard said. “We are going to proceed with the corresponding accusation of poor performance against Maqueda for social work.” And she added: “He had the opportunity to refer to those charges in writing, but he has not done so.”
Sharing
The testimony of the Deputy Attorney of the National Treasury, Horacio Diez, opened the process of hearings on the chapter of federal co-participation, the ruling of the Court that favored the Government of Buenos Aires. The official assured that the 2020 government decree maintains “the illegitimacy that that measure has for the Executive Power”, in reference to the decrees with which Macri increased co-participation to the City and that “were never expressly approved by Congress”. He denied that the PEN is failing to comply with the Court ruling, which the opposition claims.
During the meeting, the deputy Marcelo Casaretto (FdT, Entre Ríos), asked to summon the former Macrista minister Rogelio Frigerio as a witness. The opposition resisted the call of its candidate in Entre Ríos: “They want to subdue the most competitive candidate for governor in the province. He could have stayed with his privileges and not come but he did not and resigned from his seat. I oppose from every point of view”, affirmed Juan Manuel López (CC) who made reference to Frigerio’s recent resignation as national deputy to justify it.
After a brief debate between the ruling party and the opposition, the deputies agreed to leave the call for after the general elections on October 22, at a proposal from Entre Ríos Gaillard herself and deputy Leopoldo Moreau (FdT). “This summons must materialize after the election,” Moreau said. Rodolfo Tailhade (FdT) proposed, then, to incorporate as documentary evidence “a video where the then Minister of the Interior, Rogelio Frigerio, acknowledges that Macri had transferred extra money to the City of Buenos Aires”, during an interview on the program A dos voices, from the news channel TN.
Tailhade’s proposal, approved at the meeting, includes the request for a voice print of Marcelo D’Alessandro, from whose cell phone conversations he had with Silvio Robles were leaked. In the chats there are not only written messages, but “different audios,” said the pro-government legislator. “For us, the chats are one more piece of evidence, one more indication of our research hypothesis, which is the collusion between the Court and the City Government in this case,” Tailhade remarked, while maintaining the importance of proving “the credibility of these leaks.
“Since we still do not have testimonial statements from Robles and D’Alessandro about whether they recognize these chats, for now I request that we do an independent test,” he said, saying that the voice of the former Buenos Aires official could be taken from television reports and that “the Federal Police is in charge of carrying out the expertise” of comparison. “When D’Alessandro comes (to the commission), you president order the Scientific Police Division to come and take his voice when he declares,” she added.
The summons of Ignacio Mahiques, former federal prosecutor and current appeals judge of the City, was also approved. “He is the official who celebrated his birthday in August of last year at the Four Seasons, where Marcelo D’Alessandro and Silvio Robles arrived together,” said Tailhade.
Finally, the commission convened for the meeting next Tuesday the former secretary of provinces of the Ministry of the Interior and current head of Banco Nación, Silvina Batakis; the City Attorney General, Gabriel Astarloa and the State prosecutors of the provinces of Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, La Rioja and Santa Cruz. In addition, he approved to summon again the Secretary of Original Judgments of the Court, Alejandro Rodríguez.
