The three areas on which the Council of the Judiciary will advance in the investigation against Judge Luis Rodríguez

The denunciations against the federal judge Luis Rodriguez already add eight to the Council of the Judiciary. Last week, three more came in and the body decided accelerate investigations into its possible poor performance, its heritage and the millionaire bribe that, according to three repentants of the cause of the notebooks, the magistrate would have charged to privilege in the file the former private secretary of Néstor Kirchner, Daniel Muñoz.

The repentant statement of his widow, Carolina Pochetti, placed Rodriguez at the center of the public stage and activated oscillating times of the Council, responsible for the appointment and dismissal of national and federal judges.

Pochetti testified before the prosecutors Carlos Stornelli and Carlos RívoloBefore dying in 2016, her husband had told her that he had paid Rodriguez $ 10 million to stop the investigation because of a possible illicit enrichment and corruption. money laundering.. According to his confession, Muñoz would have done it through the intermediary of his lawyer of the time, Miguel Angel Pló, also arrested today for the cause of the notebooks.

Despite the repeated demands of Stornelli – also tax in the cases concerning the deceased Muñoz – Rodriguez has not advanced in the precautionary measures on the heritage of the former private secretary of Kirchner, nor on the freedom of his widow or his environment. This earned him the Federal Chamber will remove it from the file last October. The case was sent back to Bonadio, who ordered the arrest of Pochetti, the Muñoz leaders and intermediaries involved in money laundering operations abroad. These arrests triggered his subsequent confession as a repentant.

The investigation of the Council into the first five allegations against Rodriguez was in the hands of Diego Molea, member of the Prosecution and Discipline Committee and one of the new members of the body who entered the university representation. Molea concentrated the two denunciations of the Civic Coalition, the two badociations of the Bar of the City of Buenos Aires and that of Ricardo Monner Sans. To these five other three others were added last week, which were already drawn and fell into the hands of various advisers.

To speed up the investigation, Molea asked at yesterday 's meeting of the Discipline and Prosecution Commission to be able to request action without having to wait for the approval of the weekly meeting or. bimonthly. The President of the Commission, Miguel Pichetto, accepted.

As he says Infobae, Rodriguez's research will focus on three areas, who will seek to move in parallel to see if they can be verified: poor performance, the perception of a bribe to favor an accused and the enrichment of wealth.

The heritage survey

By majority, it was agreed open the sealed envelope containing the affidavits of Rodríguez and his annexes reserved, next Wednesday at 10 o'clock. Yesterday he informed the magistrate and it is very likely that the lawyer that he has already appointed, the criminal Oscar Vignale, be present.

After Board Directors Have Access to Contents of Affidavits – Meeting Closed – will evaluate whether it is necessary to ask, in addition, affidavits of his wife, Silvia Arcos Valcarcel. Currently Legal Secretary of the Court, she works at the Supreme Court Libraries Directorate.

The Board will review the reserved schedules of affidavits since Rodríguez took office as a federal judge in 2012, in order to cross these data with other experimental measures. "We will check your expenses and your standard of living with your statement", they explained.

The agency had already asked last week a series of measures to advance research on the actions of Rodríguez. Between them, the request to the Central Bank concerning bank accounts and their movements on behalf of the magistrate, as well as credit cards and their consumptions. As well orders to the property and automobile registry, identify the goods in your name and that of your wife. This information has not yet reached the Council.

The request for collaboration with other agencies includes the Financial Information Unit (FIU) should report if there are suspicious transaction reports on behalf of Rodriguez, as well as the existence of possible accounts abroad. However, doubts remain as to whether the body headed by Mariano Federici will send this information to the Council without order from a previous judge.

The information we have received is from Migrations, with details of outings to the outside of the magistrate and his wife. According to the data with which he accepted Infobae, Rodríguez did 10 trips abroad in the last 5 years, to destinations such as Spain, Italy, France, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Brazil, most with his wife. "In principle, nothing abnormal disappears, but we will badyze the information," they told the Commission.

Counselors are aware that inheritance is probably the least questionable or irregular aspect in a possible charge against Rodríguez, considered a "neat" judge in the judicial environment.

In addition to the widow of Muñoz, the real estate agent of Mar del Plata and designated as a figurehead, Elisabeth Municoy, and the historical accountant Kirchner, Víctor Manzanares, have done.

As published The nation, the latter confessed as repentant in front of public prosecutors that Muñoz himself had told him from the hospital bed where he had been hospitalized with a terminal cancer that had disbursed $ 8 million to Rodriguez in investigation of its heritage operations externally. However, the declaration of Manzanares has not yet been approved by Bonadio, that is to say that it is not yet formally part of the file. But the Council took into account the journalistic publications and an extension of the complaint filed by Monner Sans, requesting that these confessions be combined with the investigation led by Molea.

As far as he can know InfobaeBonadio has not yet sent a statement to the Council.

The impeachment of Rodriguez for his decisions and his role as judge is another axis of investigation and, for this, they asked the Commissioncertified opia issued from a battery of judges' resolutions and judicial proceedings. However, it will not be easy. historically Judges counselors are reluctant to go ahead on what is called "the issue of jurisdiction" and reject the possibility that magistrates be prosecuted for the content of their judgments.

For the moment, the Commission has already requested a copy of the cases that Rodriguez had against Muñoz and Pochetti, both the file initiated by a possible illicit enrichment and the laundering of the disclosure of Panama Papers, as resolved by the House to remove it from the file. He also played in the case following the complaint on the television of Miriam Quiroga, former head of documentation of Casa Rosada under the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, who said he saw Muñoz weigh bags with money. Money to transport them south. Rodriguez filed this complaint.

The lawyer appointed by Rodriguez, Vignale, confirms Infobae who works a brief to present to his defense under Article 11 of the Rules of the Indictment and Disciplinary Committee, which sets a deadline of 20 working days, from the notification to the magistrate of the opening of a hearing. investigation of his work. It is a kind of defense of the judge, in which he can answer the terms of the complaint, exercise his defense and present evidence. The deadline for submission is March 19th.

According to what Vignale has said to this newspaper, the letter will cover the different edges for which Rodríguez is accused. "On the one hand, defend what he did as a judge, how he did it, and why. On the other hand, the idea is to prove that he did not become rich and to show how he lives. The first test requested by the Council goes in this direction and will prove it", said the lawyer, finally, the release will include the estimation of repentant statements and their probative value.

If councilors feel that the written defense is insufficient, they can quote it under Article 20, which equates to indagatoria in criminal proceedings.

The Council investigates and eventually punishes the poor performance of a judge, but does not seek to prove crimes. The maximum penalty – dismissal, after a political trial – is not criminal, but political.

In parallel with the investigation of the Council of the Judiciary, by the words of Pochetti a criminal case was opened which fell before the federal court of Sebastián Casanello. This magistrate delegated the investigation to the Attorney General Gerardo Pollicita, who will have to devote himself to prove if there had been corruption on the part of Rodriguez.

Pollicita has already asked Monday the first test measurementsat. Among them, Stornelli asked the sections of the statements of the repentants who make reference to the magistrate and the cases in which he intervened. He also asked the Commission for all that had been done so far, based on the complaints lodged against him, as well as on his affidavits.

Three new complaints

Of the 5 complaints in two Council cases, three more were added.

One of the national senator of the change for the province of Tucumán Silvia Elías de Pérez for the action of Rodriguez in a fund management case of the former Federal Ministry of Planning for work in this province. De Vido, the former secretary of public works, José López, and the former governor of Tucumán, José Alperovich, are accused in this case.

Another of the Máximo Esteban Padilla particular against Rodríguez for benefited with the house arrest of unionist Omar "Caballo" Suárez at the end of 2017.

And one-third of the lawyer Alejandro Sánchez Kalbermatten for the action of Rodriguez, head of the Provisional Court of Investigation, Court of Inquiry No. 49 in a 2007 case, to the detriment of the Advertising company Sarmiento SA and its owners.

After being drawn, one of them went to see Councilor Graciela Camaño, another to try Alberto Lugones and the third, before the lawyer Juan Pablo Vélez.