PSOE lawyer admits €125,000 payment and Fiscalía meetings with Leire Díez, cites professional secrecy
Jacobo Teijelo acknowledged in court on 25 June that he received €125,000 from the PSOE for judicial 'sentiment analysis' and attended meetings at the Fiscalía General with the party's alleged fixer Leire Díez, while refusing to disclose details under professional secrecy.
Testimony before the Audiencia Nacional
Jacobo Teijelo appeared on 25 June 2026 before Judge Santiago Pedraz at Spain's Audiencia Nacional as a suspect in the so-called Leire Díez case. The investigation targets an alleged organised group within the PSOE that sought to destabilise judicial proceedings affecting the party, the government and the family of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Teijelo is one of eight people formally under investigation, alongside former PSOE organising secretary Santos Cerdán (his client), party manager Ana María Fuentes, ex-militant Leire Díez, former Andalusian vice-president Gaspar Zarrías, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, Guardia Civil captain Juan Sánchez Yepes and lawyer Ismael Oliver.
Payments and the 'sentiment analysis' contract
Teijelo acknowledged during the hour-long hearing that the PSOE paid him three invoices worth €125,000 for a "prospective," data-driven analysis of judicial decisions. He described the work as "sentiment analysis of judicial behaviour," a technique he said is used in the United States to predict how judges may rule in future by studying their past decisions. The payments were made between January and March 2025, although Teijelo stated he began working for the party in October 2024. He specifically cited predicting the actions of Supreme Court judge Leopoldo Puente, who handled the Koldo case and was the rapporteur on the constitutionality challenge to the amnesty law. Two further invoices totalling €53,000, reportedly for April and May 2025, were rejected by the PSOE's manager after Santos Cerdán left the party. Teijelo said the party argued the payments were incompatible with his role as Cerdán's legal representative. He insisted that none of the money from the three paid invoices was passed to Leire Díez or any other member of the alleged network.
Meetings at the Fiscalía General
Teijelo confirmed that he attended meetings at the headquarters of the Fiscalía General alongside Leire Díez, and that at least two encounters took place with Diego Villafañe, the then right-hand man of Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz, in March and April 2025. He refused, however, to reveal the purpose or content of those meetings, invoking his professional secrecy as a lawyer. Teijelo also denied the Fiscalía's earlier claim that he had introduced Díez as a colleague from his law firm.
- Teijelo begins working for PSOE on judicial analysis
- First invoice paid; three invoices totalling €125,000 follow by March
- Meetings at Fiscalía General with Leire Díez and Diego Villafañe start
- Second Fiscalía meeting; two additional invoices issued
- Santos Cerdán leaves PSOE; last two invoices (€53,000) go unpaid
- Teijelo testifies as a suspect at the Audiencia Nacional
Tension and judicial reprimands
The session was described by multiple sources as tense and "unpleasant." Judge Pedraz did not ask questions himself, leaving the interrogation to the prosecutors and Teijelo's own defence lawyer. Several times the judge interrupted Teijelo to require him to stick to the facts, as the lawyer repeatedly alluded to broader claims about the investigation. Teijelo answered only questions from the public prosecutors, which were reportedly vague, and from his own lawyer.
Aftermath and the broader investigation
After the hearing, Teijelo told reporters:
He added:They are persecuting lawyers who defend the PSOE, and what is really being persecuted is people's right to be defended by a lawyer.
The judge had previously approved a Guardia Civil operation in May 2026 that led to raids and the formal inclusion of the suspects in the case. Police reports from the UCO suggest Teijelo was assigned one of the operational lines within the group, with potential charges of revealing secrets, bribery and crimes against the institutions of the State.We are all threatened by these actions that persecute the right to defence.
