Zapatero challenges US phone extraction as defence seeks to exclude key evidence in Plus Ultra influence-peddling case

The request for clarification

The defence of former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has filed a submission with investigating judge José Luis Calama at the Audiencia Nacional, demanding that the United States provide a complete account of how it obtained the contents of a mobile phone belonging to Rodolfo Reyes Rojas. Reyes is the former principal shareholder of airline Plus Ultra and is also under investigation in the case. The phone's WhatsApp messages place Zapatero at the centre of an alleged influence-peddling operation to secure a €53 million government bailout for the carrier in 2021.

The absence of complete data about Mr Reyes Rojas's device, its seizure, the cloning method, the authenticity of the communications, and the custody of the device accessed by the US police raises reasonable doubts about respect for the right to a process with all guarantees.

How the phone was seized

Reyes was detained on arrival in the United States in 2021 and denied entry. During that detention, agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), cloned his mobile phone. The extraction was carried out in the context of a US smuggling investigation, but the Spanish authorities only became aware of the material in 2026 through police cooperation channels. Judge Calama has already issued a rogatory commission requesting formal US authorisation to use the extracted data as evidence in a potential trial.

The defence strategy

Zapatero's lawyer, Víctor Moreno Catena, is pursuing a strategy of seeking procedural nullities. He argues that the information exchange between US and Spanish police forces occurred without known judicial oversight, and that the sparse information provided so far makes it impossible to verify the authenticity, integrity, and lawfulness of the evidence. The defence has requested a long list of specifics: the judicial resolution or administrative order that authorised the cloning, the scope of the extraction (total, partial, physical, logical, remote, or selective), the software used, the identity of the authority that performed the analysis, and the verification mechanisms including hashes and chain-of-custody records.

This is absolutely necessary to verify whether the conversations said to be contained in the device and analysed by the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office really meet the requirements of authenticity, integrity and lawfulness.

The broader context

According to a new book by journalist Isaac Blasco, 'Zapatero en la diana de Trump' (Última línea, 2026), US intelligence agencies have been intensively gathering information on Zapatero's activities for years, particularly regarding his role as what one agent describes as a "necessary accomplice" of the Venezuelan government. The book claims the US Embassy in Madrid has served as a hub for informants reporting on the former prime minister's lobbying and consulting work with authoritarian regimes, including China, Guinea, and especially Venezuela. Some Spanish commentators have raised suspicions of political motivation, noting that ICE was a flagship agency of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement apparatus.

What comes next

Zapatero has remained silent since his indictment, preparing for his scheduled testimony as a person under investigation on 17 June. The eventual nullification of the US-sourced material would significantly weaken the incriminating evidence against him, though other indicia of alleged criminal conduct exist in the case file. The judge's rogatory commission, issued on 5 June, pre-empted the defence's move by already seeking US permission to use the phone data. The defence now wants that commission expanded to include all the technical and legal details surrounding the extraction.