The National Government asked the Council of the Magistracy to initiate an investigation to determine if the judges Julián Ercolini, Pablo Yadarola, Carlos Mahiques and Pablo Cayssials have incurred in “some supposed bad performance” with the trip they made along with Buenos Aires officials, former intelligence agents and media businessmen to hidden lake in October of this year.
The request was made through a complaint filed by the lawyer Geronimo Javier Ustarrozin the capacity of counselor representing the Executive Power of the Nation in the body in charge of controlling the conduct of judges, known today from judicial sources.
In the letter, to which Télam had access, Ustarroz pointed out that on October 17 of this year the newspaper Página 12 published an article where an alleged “secret judicial political conclave in Lago Escondido”where the mansion of the British tycoon Joe Lewis.
There they would have arrived by means of a private flight Julián Ercolini, head of the National Criminal and Correctional Court number 10; Juan Bautista Mahiquesattorney general of the city of Buenos Aires; Marcelo D´AlessandroBuenos Aires Minister of Security and Justice; Carlos Mahiquesjudge of the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber; Pablo Yadarolain charge of the National Economic Criminal Court number 2; Paul Cayssialshead of the National Court for Federal Administrative Litigation number 9; Leonardo Bergroth (former AFI member) and Thomas Reinkepresident of Mediabit SA
Joe Lewis, owner of Lago Escondido, the place where power holds its meetings
✍ Leonardo Castillohttps://t.co/0poriPme3w
– Telam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) December 11, 2022
According to the published note, the flight departed on Thursday, October 13 at 9:30 a.m. from the San Fernando airport with the aforementioned passengers and bound for Bariloche.
On December 5, the president Alberto Fernandez ad, through national chainwhich instructed the Ministry of Justice of the Nation to adopt the necessary measures in order to investigate the trip, after the issue received greater media coverage from the filtering of chats among those who would have participated in that trip. The executives of Grupo Clarín also appeared there Jorge Rendo and Pablo Casey.
On December 7, the federal prosecutor of Bariloche Maria Candida Etchepare He asked the Justice to investigate the acceptance of gifts to the group involved.
Under these circumstances, Ustarroz considered it necessary to proceed with an investigation within the Judicial Council, since, if proven, the behaviors described, he said, could “be subsumed under the grounds of poor performance in the exercise functions, in accordance with the provisions of articles 53 and 115 of the National Constitution”.
As it emerges from the information that has been publicly disclosed, “The directors of Grupo Clarín mentioned would have been the ones who financed the trip -private plane, transfers and lodging- of the aforementioned magistrates”the document indicated.
And in this sense, if this situation is verified, “it would be enough to configure a clear assumption of poor performance, a reason that justifies the need to move forward with the greatest possible speed in this investigation,” he added.
In this way, “a mechanism deployed by an economic group – in this case linked to the media – tending to unduly influence the mood of the magistrates at the time of resolving in those legal cases of their interest, would be exposed, whether as a consideration, or, for the resolutions that they would have to dictate in the future”, he completed.
In the event that irregularities in the conduct of the magistrates are configured, progress could be made in the request for impeachment, which would be in charge of a trial jury.
