The Government asked the Senate to withdraw the list of Maria Veronica Michellicandidate for judge of the Federal Criminal Oral Court 3 of La Plata. The note is signed by the president Javier Milei and his Minister of Justice, Juan Bautista Mahiques. The argument is neither technical nor legal: Michelli is the sister-in-law of Hugo Alconada Monjournalist The Nation who investigated the scandal case $LIBRA and the assets of the Chief of Staff, Manuel Adorni.
The candidate had gathered nine of the seventeen votes of the Agreements Commission—sufficient majority to issue an opinion—but the president of that commission, the libertarian senator Juan Carlos Pagotto (La Rioja), refuses to present it in flagrant violation of the regulations. Pagotto arrived at the Senate in 2023 thanks to his cousins Martín and Eduardo “Lule” Menemhas direct line with Karina Milei —who requested her appointment as head of Agreements— and privately boasts of being able to distance herself from the orders of the head of the bloc, Patricia Bullrich.
Michelli’s veto contrasts strikingly with the Government’s other judicial move at the same time. Separately, Pagotto was instructed to begin collecting signatures for the petitions. Juan Galvan Greenway and Alejandro Cataniatwo candidates for chambermaids of the jurisdiction economic criminal that until recently the ruling party itself had been held back by its links with Claudio Tapia and Pablo Tovigginothe president and the treasurer of the AFA. As far as he could know The Nationboth magistrates had negotiated with the Casa Rosada to lift the veto, and the arguments were convincing.
The contrast is difficult to ignore: the Government stops a judge with no questionable record due to her brother-in-law’s journalistic work, and at the same time unblocks two candidates identified for their ties to the leadership of Argentine soccer. The Michelli case also opens up a procedural problem: to formally withdraw the document, the Executive will need simple majority in the precinctwhich will force the senators who had already signed the opinion to define whether they continue with their initial position or give in to official pressure.
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