Spanish judge orders repeat forensic cloning of former Sánchez aide's phone

Forensic cloning ordered

Audiencia Nacional Judge Santiago Pedraz ordered the Guardia Civil Central Operative Unit (UCO) on 18 August to repeat the forensic cloning of an iPhone belonging to Juan Manuel Serrano Quintana. Serrano previously served as Pedro Sánchez's chief of staff at the PSOE headquarters until 2018 and led the state postal operator Correos until 2023. The judicial order followed procedural objections from Serrano's legal defense, which argued that an earlier extraction performed in July lacked legal validity because neither the suspect nor his attorney attended the procedure. The new bit-by-bit cloning commenced in a sealed room under the supervision of the court clerk, taking between eight and nine hours to complete.

Procedural disputes and device seizure

The dispute stems from the initial confiscation of Serrano's iPhone 15 Pro Max on 27 May 2026 at the intersection of Calle Ponzano and Calle Maudes in Madrid. At the time of the seizure, judicial authorities had not formally named Serrano as an investigated party in the case. Defense attorney Bernardo del Rosal challenged the seizure, arguing that police officers acted without express judicial authorization when taking the phone and requesting the device access codes.

The opening of his devices, complete cloning and safeguarding of their content will be carried out under the technical conditions necessary to ensure data authenticity and integrity as well as preservation guarantees.

In an interlocutory ruling dated 7 August, Judge Pedraz rejected the defense petition to annul the initial phone seizure, declaring that the lack of formal indictment at the time of the stop did not preclude the UCO from securing the device. The judge treated the initial July extraction without defense counsel as an inadvertent error and mandated the repeat procedure to ensure full evidentiary validity before trial.

Scope of the corruption investigation

The forensic data extraction forms part of the ongoing judicial probe into the Leire Díez affair. The investigation centers on alleged procurement rigging within the state holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) as well as parallel efforts to disrupt judicial proceedings affecting the governing PSOE party. Investigators have implicated former PSOE organizational secretary Santos Cerdán alongside former party member Leire Díez.

Pedraz formally placed Serrano under investigation on 10 July 2026 after police reports attributed a preeminent role to him across both branches of the alleged scheme. The judicial probe involves allegations of fraud, document forgery, embezzlement, influence peddling, and prevarication. Serrano's legal team has petitioned the court to conduct a content expungement, requesting that judicial files retain only messages directly tied to suspected public contract kickbacks.

Message volume and police analysis

Judicial interest in Serrano's device intensified after investigators analyzed electronic files seized from other suspects in the case. Forensic reviews of Leire Díez's hardware uncovered 9,355 WhatsApp messages and 1,487 Signal messages exchanged between Díez and Serrano.

The discovery of over 10,800 recorded communications prompted the magistrate to deem the search of Serrano's device necessary and proportionate to evaluate whether he directed or facilitated illegal operations. Serrano and his defense attorney are scheduled to appear at the Audiencia Nacional on 19 August at 10:30 to oversee the unsealing and verify the forensic transfer to external hard drives. The Guardia Civil will then analyze the extracted files and submit a formal police report to the investigating magistrate.