New clash in the Kitchen trial: a police chief denies pressure to erase Rajoy from the Gürtel case

A chief inspector of the National Police who supervised the reports on the alleged secret accounting of the Partido Popular denied this Monday before the Audiencia Nacional that orders were given to eliminate from the police documents references to the then President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, or to the former popular general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal. The agent appeared as a witness in the trial of the so-called Operation Kitchen, the alleged parapolice espionage plot organized in 2013 from the Ministry of the Interior to obtain compromising information from the former PP treasurer, Luis Bárcenas.

During his statement, the inspector directly contradicted the claims made previously by Manuel Morocho, responsible for the investigation of the Gürtel case within the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF). Morocho assured in his appearance that there was a “strategy” to dismantle the investigative group and that he received pressure not to include Rajoy's name in some reports related to the alleged irregular financing of the PP. However, the inspector declared this Monday that “never” an order was given to remove specific names and denied any attempt to manipulate police documents.

“We have never told him to remove the name”, affirmed the police commander before the court, insisting that the revisions of the reports were carried out “with great caution” to avoid errors in a particularly sensitive investigation. As he explained, the warnings conveyed to Morocho were related to the need not to identify people solely from initials found in documents whose authenticity had not yet been accredited. “He has not received any pressure”, added the inspector, who at the time of the events held the head of the Money Laundering and Anti-Corruption section.

The witness also rejected that the investigative group of the Gürtel case was deliberately dismantled from the police leadership. Against Morocho's complaints, he assured that the unit received “the maximum support” and that even more officials were incorporated due to the accumulated volume of work. “Officials from other groups were put to help him, because the reports had to come out as soon as possible”, stated the inspector, who estimated at “12 or more” the agents who came to be part of the team. However, he acknowledged that several police officers requested to leave the unit because “they were tired of the subject” and because “not everyone was comfortable” under Morocho's orders, whom he defined as “a very good professional, but with a strong character”.