Milei Pushes Two Controversial Judges for Federal Chamber: One Traveled to Lago Escondido

President Javier Milei is moving forward without hesitation on the federal courts. This Monday, the nominations of two candidates to join the strategic Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires were submitted to the Senate: Pablo Yadarola and Pablo Bertuzzi. They are the applicants to replace two judges that former President Mauricio Macri irregularly appointed to the review court of Comodoro Py.

Yadarola is currently a judge in criminal economic matters and was part of the trip to Lago Escondido financed by two executives of Grupo Clarín, which also included the current Minister of Justice, Juan Bautista Mahiques, who proposed him for the position. Bertuzzi, meanwhile, is one of those who should be replaced. If the Senate approves the nominations, both will be able to remain in office until age 75. As if that were not enough, they could intervene in the $LIBRA case.

“I am pleased to address you to request the corresponding agreement in order to enable the appointment, under the terms of Article 99, subsection 4 of the National Constitution, of the judge of the National Chamber of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Federal Matters of the Federal Capital, Chamber I, Dr. Pablo Daniel Bertuzzi,” reads the message that the Executive sent to the Senate Agreements Committee. The same applies to Yadarola. Both bear the signatures of Milei and Mahiques.

The nomination of these two candidates was an open secret. This Monday confirmed what was expected regarding two highly important positions for the political world. They are two of the six seats on the review body of Comodoro Py, through which corruption cases of the current government pass and which Milei closely follows.

Both Bertuzzi and Yadarola are old acquaintances of Juan Bautista Mahiques, one of the government’s new judicial operators. Mahiques (h) was key to the irregular transfer of Bertuzzi to the Buenos Aires chamber during the Macri administration, that is, for the appointment questioned by the Court in 2020. At that time, the current Minister of Justice was one of Macri’s operators in the courts and represented the Executive on the Council of the Judiciary. He was part of the operation that brought Leopoldo Bruglia and Bertuzzi to the review body of Comodoro Py, from where the judicial persecution of opponents was promoted.

Mahiques (h)’s relationship with Yadarola became evident during the trip to Lago Escondido, known as the “lawfare flight.” It was a trip to Joe Lewis’s mansion in Bariloche, which took place on October 13, 2022, and everything indicates it was paid for by two executives of Grupo Clarín. The flight manifest shows that judges and prosecutors of lawfare, along with members of the former SIDE and a well-known publicist, flew from San Fernando to Bariloche to spend a few days at Lago Escondido.

The dissemination of the news, which coincided with the leak of chats from the cell phone of then Security and Justice Minister Marcelo D’Alessandro – who was also part of the trip – led to a judicial investigation and another in the Council of the Judiciary, both of which were closed in a clear corporate message.

Who else was part of that trip besides Mahiques son – then Buenos Aires Attorney General – and Yadarola? Jorge Rendo, then president of Grupo Clarín, and Pablo Casey, nephew of Héctor Magnetto and director of Legal Affairs at Telecom Argentina. According to the leaked chats, these were the ones who financed the trip and organized the group. Also part of the meeting were: Judge Julián Ercolini, who promoted the Vialidad and Hotesur cases; the father of the current Minister of Justice, Cassation Judge Carlos “Coco” Mahiques, who intervened in a case related to Lago Escondido where he benefited the Lewis family; Judge Pablo Cayssials, who at the time annulled Clarín’s ex officio adaptation to the Media Law; Marcelo D’Alessandro, who was Buenos Aires Minister of Justice and Security; Leonardo Bergroth, former SIDE member linked to Antonio Stiuso; and publicist Tomás Reinke, specialized in social media campaigns. A clear definition of the network of relationships of those involved in this plot, especially the current Minister of Justice and the candidate for the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires proposed by Milei.

The competition to fill these two vacancies in Chamber I of the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires was opened following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice in November 2020, which deemed the appointments of Bertuzzi and Leopoldo Bruglia made by Macri as irregular.

Then-President Macri had handpicked Bruglia and Bertuzzi to control this strategic review court of Comodoro Py. During the government of Alberto Fernández, the Court considered that the appointments of Bruglia and Bertuzzi should cease when their natural replacements were named. When this was about to happen, in the midst of the Peronist administration, the Court modified the composition of the Council of the Judiciary and changed the balance of power. Almost six years passed since the ruling that conditioned the future of Bruglia and Bertuzzi. Last June, the competition for the controversy ended. Bertuzzi, who was in 21st place in the merit order, managed to reach 6th place after personal interviews. This arbitrary rise allowed him to slip into the last spot of the two shortlists. The new composition of the Council finally approved the shortlists, which seemed tailor-made for the current libertarian government.

On June 10, the Council of the Judiciary, chaired by the head of the Supreme Court, Judge Horacio Rosatti, approved the two shortlists to fill the positions currently held irregularly by Leopoldo Bruglia and Pablo Bertuzzi. By 15 votes to 5 (the Peronist bloc on the Council opposed), the councilors approved the majority opinion promoted by the ruling party. The nominees were: Fernando Luis Rodolfo Poviña (1st), Agustina Inés Rodríguez (3rd), and Pablo Yadarola (5th) for the first shortlist. And Julio César Di Giorgio (2nd), Cecilia Patricia Incardona (4th), and Pablo Daniel Bertuzzi (6th) for the second. This Monday, what was expected was made official: that Milei would choose Yadarola from the first shortlist and Bertuzzi from the second.

To approve the competition, two-thirds of the votes of the plenary were required, that is, more than 13 votes if 20 were present. The Government, in alliance with the judicial corporation and deputies and senators from the PRO and UCR, reached 15 votes. If this framework of alliances is repeated in the Upper House, the nominations of the applicants will not face any surprises.

What remains from now on for Yadarola and Bertuzzi to become “natural” judges of the Buenos Aires Chamber? That their nominations, which were sent this Monday to the Senate Agreements Committee, be approved by a simple majority in the Upper House, after passing through the Agreements Committee. Then, only their appointment needs to be published by decree in the Official Gazette to formalize the appointments.

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