Zapatero threatens to have key chats thrown out unless US explains their origin

Zapatero warns the judge: he will have the chats thrown out unless the US explains how they were obtained

Former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has told the judge that he will seek the nullification of the key messages in the case if the US authorities do not detail how they were obtained. The move, part of a defence strategy that questions the chain of custody of the digital evidence, opens a new front in a case already marked by procedural tensions.

Zapatero's demand rests on a solid legal argument: the origin and authenticity of digital evidence cannot be presumed. For it to be admissible, it is necessary to reconstruct who obtained the device, under what authorisation, how the data was extracted, who kept it and on what legal basis it was sent to Spain. The US authorisation to use the material only settles permission to use it, not the integrity of the chain. However, an irregularity does not automatically void the entire case: the courts distinguish between curable defects, breaks in the chain that affect authenticity, and abusa of fundamental rights. It also matters whether independent evidence points to the same facts.

At the same time, the recent case of José Luis Ábalos —convicted just hours earlier, according to reports— has fuelled scepticism about the willingness of some political parties to submit to justice without resorting to technicalities. Two currents cross in the debate: those who see the request as a legitimate right of defence, and those who interpret it as an attempt to dodge the substance of the matter through procedural ploys.

The underlying question remains open: if the evidence was lawfully obtained within drug trafficking investigations, as some sources suggest, Zapatero's challenge may have limited scope. But the strategy has already succeeded in delaying the proceedings and keeping a public opinion, increasingly weary of the judicialisation of politics, on edge.