Newspaper paid corrupt MP aide to lie about Spain’s PM: report
One payment of €150,000 was sent the day after now imprisoned ex-minister José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García gave an interview to a news outlet alleging corruption on the part of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his wife Begoña Gómez.
The publishing company behind the right-wing Spanish news outlet OK Diario paid €242,000 towards the defence of Koldo García, a former Socialist (PSOE) government advisor imprisoned as part of the Caso Koldo pandemic-era corruption scandal that engulfed the Sánchez government.
That’s according to an article in the similarly named but left-leaning daily El Diario, published on Thursday.
The invoices were presented in court this week by García’s lawyer Leticia de la Hoz in order to prove that she had not been paid by the ruling Socialists to cover García’s legal costs.
During his trial, Koldo García testified that several media outlets promised to help him with legal proceedings in exchange for him discrediting and lying about Spain’s Socialist-led government.
OK Diario has reportedly received hundreds of thousands in euros in funding from the opposition Partido Popular (PP) in recent years, which could indicate that taxpayers’ money was used to pay for García’s defence in return for favours.
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According to reporting the Spanish press, OK Diario’s publisher Dos Mil Palabras paid the defence costs in the so-called ‘face mask case’, in which the Supreme Court sentenced Koldo, a former adviser to the Ministry of Transport, to almost 20 years in prison for criminal organisation, bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling.
His former boss, Jose Luis Ábalos, was sentenced to 24 years. The case was the first major corruption scandal in the chain of allegations that surrounded Sánchez’s inner circle.
READ ALSO: What is Spain’s ‘Caso Koldo’ corruption scandal all about?
Dos Mil Palabras reportedly paid the law firm IDBO Consultants, where Koldo’s lawyer Leticia de la Hoz works, under the heading “Fees, charges and expenses for legal advice and proceedings relating to Mr Koldo García”.
One of the payments, for €150,000 plus VAT, was paid in November 2025, the day after OK Diario ran an interview with Ábalos and García in which they alleged corruption on the part of Sánchez and his wife Begoña Gómez.
De la Hoz, who is leading the defence of former ministerial adviser Koldo García, submitted two invoices to the judge presiding over the Leire Díez case. The case concerns Díez, a former PSOE employee, who is being investigated for obtaining confidential information, influence peddling and attempts to influence legal proceedings against the PSOE.
READ ALSO: Leire Díez – The latest chapter in the corruption saga embroiling Spain’s PM
The invoices prove that the government nor the party paid Koldo García’s legal costs.
Carlos Bautista, who is acting as defence counsel for De la Hoz, and which Spanish daily El País has spoken to, said: “The documents prove that the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party made no payment whatsoever to my client for the defence of Mr Koldo García Izaguirre, as has been repeatedly claimed”.
The second invoice was issued on January 23rd 2026, involving the same companies and for the exact same service, for which €60,500, including tax. In other words, it was paid before the trial began at the Supreme Court that April.
With the invoices, de la Hoz aimed to dispel any doubts about who paid her fees and to allay any suspicion of her alleged collaboration with the PSOE.
OK Diario has since published an article in which it claims their publisher paid Koldo García in order to publish a book and make a documentary series about him.
