The defense by Alberto Fernández of Romina Picolotti, the day he attacked the Clarin investigation

July 10, 2007, two days later Bugle published the investigation into the financial “strange manipulations” of the Secretary of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Romina Picolotti, the chief of staff and political sponsor of the civil servant, Alberto Fernández, called a press conference at the Casa Rosada to make known the official position of the government in this regard. But instead of answering journalists’ questions, FErnández spent almost an hour questioning the veracity of the work of this journal and personally offending its author.

In the unpublished appointment – neither the chief of staff nor a mute Picolotti sitting next to him allowed questions – the survey data was not denied, but Fernández attributed it to an alleged “political operation “from the journalist. Claudio Savoia against Picolotti and against the whole government, including the editors of Bugle who published the research. At that time, eight months before the conflict with the countryside already erupted under the presidency of Cristina Kirchner, her husband was trying not to fight head-on with the media, and the shortest way to do so without admitting that the acts of corruption in his officials it was to blame the journalists.

“Investigative pseudojournalist”, responsible for “political operations”, “copier of files” and “author of imbecility” were some of the qualifiers that the current President of the Nation devoted this afternoon to Savoia, including the investigation it was finally confirmed by justice with the judgment of Monday.

The court case began after the publication of this newspaper, but Picolotti was not investigated by Judge María Servini until two years later. Although she did so with a pithy decision, the judge did not prosecute the former official until August 2014, and Chamber II of the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires upheld those prosecutions in December of the same year. . In 2015, after a strict request for an oral trial by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, Servini closed the investigation. By lot, the case fell into the hands of the Federal Oral Tribunal 6, which after several delays and a change in the composition of its judges finally began hearings in February this year. At the rate of a virtual meeting every fortnight, this Monday the conviction for fraudulent administration against the public administration was pronounced.