Judge Piña orders search for criminal evidence in Cospedal-Villarejo conversations, reviving Kitchen case
A Spanish National Court judge has ordered police to examine communications between former PP secretary general María Dolores de Cospedal and retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo for criminal evidence, and demanded a radio station hand over recordings that could implicate former prime minister Mariano Rajoy.
The judicial order
Judge Antonio Piña, who oversees the sprawling Villarejo case at the Audiencia Nacional, has instructed the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police to locate any conversations, emails, or bank transfers between Villarejo, Cospedal, and her former partner, businessman Ignacio López del Hierro, that "may provide evidence of criminality." The order, signed on Thursday and seen by multiple Spanish media outlets, also compels Catalan radio station RAC1 to surrender recordings it published in March 2025.
The recordings
One audio, dated 15 September 2014, captures Villarejo visiting Cospedal at the PP's national headquarters on Calle Génova, roughly a year after the bulk of Operation Kitchen. In the exchange, Villarejo mentions that "complicated documentation" had been found a month earlier, and Cospedal asks whether it was discovered by Villarejo's network or the CNI intelligence agency.
We found it.
I know they had found things before and more or less cleaned out everything he had. The president told me. Nobody else told me.
The conversation appears to refer to former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, the target of the illegal Kitchen operation.
Political pressure
The move follows repeated requests from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which acts as a popular prosecutor in several branches of the Villarejo case. The PSOE has long sought to have Cospedal re-indicted over her ties to the commissioner, but previous attempts were rejected. Cospedal was charged in the Kitchen investigation before judge Manuel García-Castellón archived the case against her.
Background of the Kitchen case
Operation Kitchen was an alleged off-the-books police operation to spy on Bárcenas and recover sensitive documents that could damage the PP. The trial is scheduled to conclude on 30 July 2026. Cospedal and Rajoy have testified as witnesses, at times appearing forgetful or dismissive, according to court reports. The new order revives a dormant line of inquiry: a previously overlooked Internal Affairs report that contained an annex labeled "MDCosped."
- Operation Kitchen: police spy on former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas to recover sensitive documents.
- Villarejo visits Cospedal at PP headquarters; recording captures discussion of compromising documents and Rajoy's alleged knowledge.
- Catalan radio RAC1 publishes the recordings, but they are not judicially assessed.
- Judge Piña orders Internal Affairs to examine communications for criminal evidence and demands RAC1 hand over the recordings.
What's next
Internal Affairs officers who originally investigated Kitchen will now return to the case to produce the requested report. The judge's decision opens a fresh path to potentially act against the former politician, though no new charges have been filed. The recordings from RAC1, which were not judicially assessed when first published, will now be formally incorporated into the investigation.
