The trial for the Cuadernos Cause added an unexpected episode when Juan Manuel Abal Medina, former Chief of Staff during Kirchnerism, appeared shirtless in full virtual hearing. It occurred on the seventh day of the oral debate, where alleged payments of bribes by construction businessmen to officials of the then ruling party are being investigated. The sequence, captured by the remote system cameras, showed the former official standing, bare-chested, and moving around his office in front of a library, although his face could not be seen. The incident immediately went viral and added an unusual tone to one of the most sensitive files in recent years.
The image took everyone present in the audience by surprise. Abal Medina connected to Zoom as one of the defendants, but the broadcast showed him walking without a shirt inside his workspace while the hearing continued. Minutes later, he reappeared correctly framed, already dressed, although without making any reference to what happened. The episode prompted comments between the parties, but did not lead to formal sanctions.
Abal Medina came to this trial after Justice found two pen drives belonging to his personal secretary with information considered “detailed” about the financing of the 2013 electoral campaign. From that discovery he was involved in the investigation, although he always denied having received bribes and maintained that the funds corresponded to declared campaign contributions.
The oral process, which reviews the illegal collection structure denounced by the driver Oscar Centeno, advances with dozens of defendants and a political scene attentive to every movement. In this context, the appearance of the former Chief of Staff in an unusual domestic situation provided an episode as striking as it was uncomfortable. Although fleeting, the scene once again put his name at the center of public conversation in a trial that still has a long time to come.
