In a significant development, four journalists from EL PAÍS have affirmed before the Supreme Court that they were privy to the intricacies of negotiations involving Alberto González Amador's attorney and the Public Prosecutor’s Office a full 31 hours prior to this information reaching the State's highest prosecutor on the night of March 13th. This revelation was shared with the judge investigating Álvaro García Ortiz.

According to case sources, the journalists disclosed that by midday on March 12th, 2024, they had received word from fiscal sources within the Madrid Superior Court about Carlos Neira, the lawyer representing Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner, aiming to strike a deal with the public ministry. This deal would entail González Amador repaying the defrauded sum of €350,951 along with a fine in exchange for admitting his offenses. However, the newspaper refrained from publishing this scoop since they couldn't substantiate it with the attorney, who did not respond to calls, emails, or WhatsApp messages from one of the reporters.

The journalists summoned on Friday included Deputy Director José Manuel Romero, Madrid section Chief Editor Luis Gómez, section head Berta Ferrero, and writer Fernando Peinado. The judge Ángel Hurtado called them following a request from the State Attorney's Office, after the journalists had submitted to a notary the WhatsApp exchanges that took place subsequent to ElDiario.es publishing on March 12th, 2024 at 6:00 AM that the prosecutor had filed a fraud complaint against Ayuso's partner.

During the testimony, Romero volunteered to hand over messages exchanged on the afternoon of March 13th with the political correspondent covering Madrid's affairs, who was in contact with Ayuso's chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, seeking to verify the information EL PAÍS had obtained from the Superior Prosecutor’s Office. These communications confirmed that the attorney's proposal to the public ministry was no longer a secret when García Ortiz received the email being investigated on the night of March 13th.

Sources from the case reported that the deputy director of EL PAÍS explained to the judge that at 1:30 PM on March 12th, he engaged with a worker from the Madrid Community Prosecutor's Office to validate the message published by the Madrid President on social media platform X. This message accused Madrid’s chief prosecutor, Pilar Rodríguez, who had filed the lawsuit against her partner, of having been a former director general in Zapatero's Justice Ministry. His contact in the prosecutor’s office clarified that the indictment against González Amador couldn't be seen as political persecution against the President’s partner, further stating attorney Neira had confessed his client's crimes and expressed a willingness to pay a fine to reduce potential prison time requested by the prosecutor. This source supplied via WhatsApp the name of attorney Neira, which had not been publicized until then.

This information quickly mobilized other journalists from the Madrid section to try and verify the pact with the attorney. Evidence of this effort is present in the messages exchanged among the reporters, now part of the case through a notarized document. In one of these messages, Ferrero instructed Peinado: "Romero says to find Carlos Neira’s phone number, apparently the lawyer for Ayuso’s partner. He showed up this morning saying he would pay, meaning admitting the crime." The reporter tried to reach the lawyer by phone, email, and WhatsApp, but received no response, preventing the newspaper from publishing the story.

The following day, on the afternoon of March 13th, El Español published that González Amador had paid the €350,000 owed to the Treasury. Romero, as recounted to the judge, asked the journalist covering Madrid’s political scene to corroborate this with Ayuso’s chief of staff. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez informed this reporter that the prosecutor had proposed a deal to González Amador’s defense, a claim published by El Mundo at 9:29 PM. This version conflicted with what EL PAÍS had known up to that point, leading Romero, as stated before the judge, to attempt verification with the TSJ’s prosecutor’s press chief, who said he couldn't confirm or deny it. The deputy director then reached out to the General Prosecutor’s press chief, who also couldn’t confirm but mentioned a press release was being prepared to clarify the situation.