Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has initiated a conciliation act against eldiario.es's director and Minister Óscar Puente for a July 2024 interview in which the politician harshly criticized his investigation into Begoña Gómez. Peinado demands the removal of the interview, public apologies, and 50,000 euros in compensation to avoid a lawsuit for insults and slander. The filing is presented by lawyer Guadalupe Sánchez, who also represents Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner.
Madrid's investigating judge number 41, Juan Carlos Peinado, seeks to have eldiario.es remove an interview published in July 2024, three months after he opened the case against Begoña Gómez, wife of President Pedro Sánchez, based on a complaint from the ultra pseudounion Manos Limpias. In that interview, Transport Minister Óscar Puente harshly criticized Peinado's role as case instructor, calling it “a trip to nowhere, crude, miserable, and a nullity by the book”.
Puente attacked the scope of the investigation, which covered Gómez's professional life, including businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, the África Center, Complutense University, and the Air Europa bailout. “There is no serious jurist in this country who rigorously defends the investigation being conducted regarding Begoña Gómez. There isn't,” the minister told journalist Esther Palomera. He added: “The only connection between those three matters is that the president's wife is involved”.
Over the past year, Madrid's Provincial Court has intervened, forcing Peinado to drop imputations against the Complutense rector, Instituto de Empresa officials, and to stop probing the Air Europa bailout due to lack of evidence beyond Manos Limpias's claims. Shortly before the interview, Peinado had questioned Pedro Sánchez at La Moncloa for a few minutes.
In the conciliation request, Peinado demands that Puente and eldiario.es's director admit it is “absolutely and radically false” that his investigation is “crude, contrived, and unfounded” or that he summoned Sánchez merely to “enter La Moncloa and record the president.” He requires removal of the interview, no further criticism of his handling, publication of apologies, and 50,000 euros for honor damages. The procedure is handled by Guadalupe Sánchez, the lawyer who has filed similar suits for the emeritus king and Alberto González Amador, Ayuso's partner, against critics labeling him a “confessed fraudster”.