It was so explicit, implausible and obvious (or obscene) that the majority of the political leadership was shocked. virtual state of shock for hours until he managed to express himself and much longer until he decided to initiate some concrete action. Meanwhile, a large part of society was already expressing harsh criticism and exuded indignation and irony on social networks.
The surprise of political opponents was one of the achievements of Manuel Adorni with his confessions on LN+in which he admitted to having been the author and executor of a systematic plan of lies and falsehoods aimed at hiding his personal enrichment and its origin, for at least 13 years, in too many instances and to too many recipients.
His other success was the close defense that, despite this accumulation of questionable acts even in court, the President and his powerful sister continued to make of him. Karina Mileito whose side the Chief of Staff belongs. Although some well-informed sources from the ruling party warned last night that there could be news about Adorni’s continuity in the coming days. The evaluation of collateral damage could have an unfavorable result for him.
The Chief of Staff had summarized the night before last, during the interview conducted by Jose Del Rioa succession of acts that contradicted innumerable previous statements of his and that, according to criminal law specialists, not only imply morally and ethically reprehensible behavior, but, a priori, could imply the confession of a crime. Or more than one, actually. To make matters worse, with the boastful admission of having been a contumacious evader.
Tax evasion, (probably) malicious omission of information in a sworn declaration and possible illicit enrichment are some of the misdemeanors and crimes that he could have incurred according to his own statements, intended to justify after more than two months of evasion sumptuary expenses and a notable increase in assets that their income and declared assets could not support.
That is what Justice will continue to investigate, now after the admission of the suspect himself, whose statements did not clear up other doubts that investigators have regarding his conduct and the criminal classification that could fit him. Court sources do not rule out a probable formal accusationwhich would precipitate his fate, by malicious omission and illicit enrichment.
formal lies
But the effects of Adorni’s statements are not exhausted in the Courts, since it is evident from his statements that, in addition, he lied to or deliberately hid it from the public, in general, and, particularly, that he made false statements in an institutional instance before the Chamber of Deputiesin the context of its management report held on April 29. There he had said that in his statements he had not hidden what he admitted to having done the night before last.
For this reason, yesterday afternoon, almost 17 hours after the Chief of Staff’s statements, several blocks of Deputies, from Perokirchnerism to the left, passing through the Civic Coalition, plus some radical legislators and from the United Provinces, presented a formal request to to call for a special sessionfor two weeks, whose main objectives are to question and request a motion of censure against the Chief of Staff.
Meanwhile, the Proin his capacity as an official ally, has not yet joined this request for a session or advanced any temperament in this regard, but he did express public criticism, in which he underlines that Adorni lied. He did it when the afternoon was falling and before numerous pressures of leaders and adherents.
The Macri administration issued a statement in which he describes what Adorni did as a “serious misconduct,” and stressed that “an official cannot tell Argentines and the National Congress that he did not hide anything, and then admit that he did. That has no possible justification.”
The Macri administration took its time to reconcile positions and reach a statement, which, for the moment, has no more effects than that of a political questioning. The person in charge of addressing the case was the head of the block of Deputies, Cristian Ritondowho made numerous consultations before proposing the tenor of the statement. His personal ties and those of his party with the ruling party they exacerbated a caution that he did not agree with the very harsh disqualification that he had expressed privately during the day before several interlocutors, according to some of them. The clumsiness more than illegality or immorality seemed to be what irritated the most.
presidential shield
Despite all this incriminating evidence, Adorni once again achieved the protection of the President and the all-powerful Secretary General of the Presidency, the support of some of the main members of the Cabinet, some of the legislators and some of the official spokespersons. But not everyone.
The unwavering defense of the Milei brothers, whose actions are usually indisputable and mandatory for their subordinates and followers, did not relent even though Adorni the night before last seemed to deny Adorni himself. Javier Milei. For now. Everything could change relatively quickly.
In any case, despite the verticalism reigning in the libertarian universe, the unusual narrative of the Chief of Staff generated discomfort among several members of the ruling partywho consider that their permanence in office and the defense assumed by the President is already having too high a cost for the Government. That is what is evaluated for these hours.
In the minority public dissident camp, the head of the LLA Senators block once again stood out, for the third time in a row. Patricia Bullrichwho on his 70th birthday recovered his youthful rebellion and gave himself a gesture of independence (and sense of opportunity) by publicly stating that what the Chief of Staff did “was not a mistake but an ethical omission.”
The place and time in which he issued that criticism give greater relevance to his solitary exposition as an official. He did it even before some opponents, about to enter a meeting of the political table in the Casa Rosada that would be chaired, precisely, by Adorni, who in the same interview the night before last had said that he would celebrate his birthday at that meeting. They say that the senator waited for others to taste the cake before taking a bite. Bold, but cautious.
The silence that other well-known government officials preferred to embrace, such as the minister of economy, Luis “Toto” Caputowho in the last two months have become Adorni’s virtual replacement in the role of spokesperson, exhibits both internal discomforts and the discomfort he generated.
In the case of the Minister of Economy, the significant drop in country risk around 450 points and the stock market boom that generated the improvement in the evaluation of the rating agency Standard & Poor’s as well as the new drop in the inflation rate (2.1%), he was little pleased that they were overshadowed on the public agenda by the new scandal generated by Adorni.
The previous news that Adorni and his wife had registered in the last hours and days in the simplified earnings regime, which is part of the Tax Innocence Law. Its sanction had aroused various criticisms and is about to be reviewed for not having achieved its objective. Many of the objections were based on the possibility that it could serve launder ill-gotten incomeparticularly public officials or those close to the current administration. Adorni lent plausibility to the critics’ suspicions. Self-harm continues to break records.
The good economic news was widely defeated on social networks, according to the Ad-hoc consultingdue to the repercussions of what Adorni said, with an absolute predominance of negative reactions.
The feast of memes competed inch by inch with the revelations that emerged from the Chief of Staff’s own X account and from videos with his statements from years ago that contradicted him and even made him look ridiculous.
One of the most reproduced publications was an interview in which, just three and a half years ago, Adorni said: “I would like to try bitcoin when there is no one wanting to buy. I don’t know whether to take cryptocurrencies as an investment.” In the interview with LN+ and in his last sworn statement, presented the day before yesterday, he had justified his asset increase in the large investment in crypto assets (US$ 200,000) that he said he had made between 2013 and 2014 and that would have brought him a profit of more than 300,000 dollars. Remarkable bravery.
Other statements of his also went viral in which he said that in 2017 he was surprised when he saw his students investing in cryptocurrencies, about which he “didn’t understand anything.”
Another statement of his that had gone more unnoticed, such as the alleged discovery of money in his father’s houseafter his death, despite the fact that he had previously said that they had only left him a mortgaged property.
These explanations, justifications and self-incriminations made it inevitable that the virtual universe would remember an old (and sexist) Argentine television sketch in which a young Luisa Albinoni justified herself to her mother because she had been late and told her that thanks to that she had been very lucky because she now had money or valuable jewelry that she had found on the street. For many It was more credible than the discovery of forgotten virtual wallets and abandoned money that Adorni recounted.
Other users chose to reproduce images of the modest standard of living that the chief of staff had in the years in which he treasured half a million dollars without anyone being able to imagine that he was the owner of such capital. In praise of austerity.
Meanwhile, dozens of cryptoasset and investment experts expressed surprise at Adorni’s claim that he had invested all or most of his savings in bitcoins. which amounted to those 200,000, between 2013 and 2014 when in those years it was considered a marginal, high-risk investment, very little disseminated and which was not easy to access without some type of experience or training in that subject. Nothing that Adorni’s criminal record supports. Too many inconsistencies.
Morality as a state policy suffered another hard blow once again. And now, Justice must determine if, in addition, there was no commission of crimes, as a result of a systematic plan of lies and concealments. Before there could be political sanctions.
