A platform to place his table above the rest, reproaches for using expressions like "I believe that," a warning about his possible indictment, and even a censure of his smile. Félix Bolaños gathered 19 complaints about the performance of the controversial judge Juan Carlos Peinado during the interrogation to which he was subjected as a witness in La Moncloa.
The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes conveyed these episodes to the president of the General Council of the Judiciary, Isabel Perelló, through five letters sent between June 2025 and April 2026. The writings, revealed this Wednesday by 'El País', describe "atypical" requests, "intimidating" comments, and treatment that Bolaños considered improper of a magistrate.
The CGPJ archived the complaints on July 28. The majority understood that some of Peinado's decisions could be "debatable," although they ruled out that they reached the necessary seriousness to impose a disciplinary sanction on him.
The appearance took place on April 16, 2025, as part of the investigation into the hiring of Cristina Álvarez, an advisor to Begoña Gómez in La Moncloa. Bolaños requested to testify in writing, but Peinado rejected that possibility because the investigated facts dated back to his time as Secretary General of the Presidency.
The tension had begun before they both sat face to face. Bolaños stated that he learned of his summons through the media four days before officially receiving it and questioned the public release of communications exchanged between the court and the Ministry to organize the proceeding.
He also reported that the judicial commission went to La Moncloa in a marked police car, despite efforts made to ensure a discreet transfer. According to the minister, that decision allowed journalists to easily identify the vehicle and rendered the agreed security measures ineffective.
A platform, a threat, and a smile
Bolaños's first letter, dated June 4, 2025, dedicated eleven pages to explaining an appearance he described as "absolutely anomalous." Thirteen of the 19 complaints focused on what happened before and during that interrogation.
The minister recounted that Peinado demanded to be picked up at the court office itself and asked to install a platform in the office prepared for the statement. His intention, according to the document, was to place the judicial commission's table in a physically higher position than that occupied by the witness and the rest of the attendees.
Bolaños recalled that the magistrate had not made that same request when he questioned Pedro Sánchez within the case and maintained that the demand lacked normative support. The statement began late while staff tried to accommodate conditions that had not been previously communicated.
During the interrogation, Peinado warned the minister that his procedural status could change at any moment. Bolaños considered that phrase "exclusively intimidating", since his status as a privileged person prevented the instructor from directly converting him into an investigated party. That decision corresponded to the Supreme Court.
The judge also reproached him on several occasions for his manner of answering. He criticized him for using formulas such as "I believe that" or "in general terms", questioned his ignorance of some data, and ordered the proceeding to be interrupted for half an hour so that he could leave the office and try to obtain information that was already in the summary.
The most striking episode came when Peinado noticed his gestures. "The judge also deemed it appropriate to censure my facial expression, prohibiting me from smiling during the proceeding," Bolaños later wrote to Perelló.
The claims continued when Peinado sent a reasoned exposition to the Supreme Court to investigate the minister for false testimony and embezzlement. The high court rejected it barely twenty days later, finding an "absolute absence of evidence" against Bolaños.
The head of Justice then denounced that Peinado repeatedly referred to him as "investigated" before the Supreme Court had made any decision. He considered it "one more procedural irregularity" aimed at harming his reputation and publicly presenting him under a status he legally did not have.
The following letters reproached the judge for disseminating the existence of the proceedings opened by the CGPJ and for again mentioning Bolaños' statement within the order to prosecute Begoña Gómez. The last letter, sent in April 2026, was directed against the Council's own delay, which had already accumulated 301 days without resolving the file when Peinado's retirement is scheduled for next September 27.
Even the ultras of Manos Limpias complain about Peinado
The file went ahead with the votes of the four members proposed by the PP and that of Carlos Hugo Preciado, elected at the proposal of Sumar. The progressive members Argelia Queralt and Bernardo Fernández refused to close the file, while Perelló considered the decision approved after confirming that a majority already existed.
Queralt and Fernández argued in a dissenting vote that the judge's behavior should be analyzed as a whole. In their opinion, the reiteration and increasing personalization of the reproaches demanded determining whether a strict direction of the interrogation had ended up becoming intimidating, humiliating, or inconsiderate treatment.
Of the six investigations that the CGPJ had open against Peinado, four were archived. The other two have been sent to the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid to assess possible minor offenses of inconsideration and delay, punished with a maximum fine of 500 euros.
The controversial treatment by the magistrate has ended up causing complaints even among those who have promoted the judicial offensive against Begoña Gómez. Manos Limpias, a far-right organization that promoted the case through a complaint based on press clippings, has now also gone to the CGPJ for Peinado's "inconsideration".
The new complaint states that the judge raised his voice and "rudely" expelled one of the organization's lawyers from the courtroom during the preliminary hearing held last June 15. The lawyer intended to replace a colleague who had to leave the hearing to catch a flight.
According to their written statement, Peinado rejected the substitution, disregarded the explanations of the Justice Administration lawyer, and ordered the lawyer to leave the room immediately. The CGPJ has already opened an informative proceeding to examine the complaint filed by Manos Limpias against the same judge it helped place at the center of Spanish politics.
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