Former Spanish military man who spied on Assange for the CIA is investigated for falsifying evidence

A new legal battle has begun for David Morales, a former Spanish military man who spied on Julian Assange for the CIA during the latter’s time at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Madrid Court No. 45 is officially investigating Morales — who is the owner of UC Global S.L., the company that was in charge of security at the Ecuadorian embassy in London — for allegedly falsifying official documents and committing procedural fraud. Judge Fernando Fernández Olmedo has summoned Morales to testify as a suspect, according to court documents obtained by EL PAÍS.

The former marine allegedly forged official documents and evidence to defend himself before National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz, who is investigating him in a separate case for other crimes, including recording the Wikileaks founder’s conversations with his lawyers inside the diplomatic mission in violation of attorney-client privilege. The spying took place as the Australian’s legal team was designing its defense strategy against the U.S. extradition request.

The opening of new proceedings at a Madrid courthouse comes after Judge Pedraz recused himself and asked the Madrid courts to investigate Morales for alleged forgery of official documents and procedural fraud. Court No. 45 has accepted Pedraz’s recusal and opened proceedings against Morales.

Since his arrest in September 2019, Morales has denied any involvement in the wiretaps against Assange, but months later, he reversed his statements and told Judge José de la Mata (the first judge to oversee the case at the National Court) that it was the former Ecuadorian ambassador to London, Carlos Abad, who had ordered him to record the conversations of the Australian cyberactivist. This confession came a few weeks after the diplomat’s death.

Microphones

To bolster his testimony, the former military officer presented as evidence an alleged email from former ambassador Abad, dated January 27, 2018, in which he asked Morales to place a microphone in the Embassy meeting room. Morales asserted that the device was only placed for testing and then removed. This version of events was called into question when police reports and expert reports presented by Assange’s lawyers showed that the alleged email and other official documents submitted to the case by the former military officer’s defense were forgeries.

A police report confirmed that the emails allegedly exchanged between former ambassador Abad and Morales were not in the latter’s email inbox. Morales’ computer was seized following his arrest a few weeks after an EL PAÍS investigation revealed the secret audio and video recordings of Assange at the embassy.

In his defense, Morales also presented an alleged document from the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which seven Ecuadorian officials at the time, including two former ministers, have described as fake.

Background and complaint

There are precedents for other falsifications by Morales. In 2018, Abad filed a complaint against the former military officer and his lawyer for falsifying his emails and signature in the context of a labor law trial in Spain against a UC Global S.L. employee. The diplomat reproached Morales for his actions with a message: “I take this opportunity to tell you that in 27 years I had never seen something so poorly done; even amateur hackers are better at phishing [sending emails impersonating someone’s identity]. Once again, Mr. David, I fail to understand what you are trying to achieve with such crude and nefarious falsifications as those you or your employees are carrying out.”

Among those who were spied on by the audio and video cameras installed by Morales’s workers at the embassy was the former ambassador himself, who according to Morales’ false email was the one who ordered him to record the conversations. The diplomat was dismissed by the government of Lenin Moreno and later died of lung cancer in Quito.

Since his arrest in 2019, Morales has been released pending trial and is being investigated by the Audiencia Nacional for alleged crimes against privacy, violation of attorney-client privilege, misappropriation, bribery and money laundering.

Following his expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy and imprisonment, Assange, 52, was released on June 25 of this year after reaching a deal with the United States Department of Justice in which he pleaded guilty to a violation of the Espionage Act and accepted a five-year prison sentence that he had already served in London’s Belmarsh prison.

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