Phoenix 24
A procedural dispute is becoming a broader argument about transparency and the rule of law.
Lisbon
António Costa, former Portuguese prime minister and current president of the European Council, has again been denied access to the judicial file linked to Operation Influencer. According to reporting in Portugal, prosecutors have now rejected requests from his lawyers six times, arguing that Costa is not formally classified as a defendant in the case and therefore cannot consult the investigation.
The dispute reaches back to November 2023, when Operation Influencer triggered a major political crisis in Portugal. Searches were conducted at government ministries and at the prime minister’s official residence, while prosecutors announced that Costa would be investigated separately by the country’s highest court. He resigned the same day, saying that the dignity of the office was incompatible with suspicions regarding his integrity.
Costa now argues that the current procedural situation is contradictory. Prosecutors maintain that he cannot access the file because he is only a suspect and not a formal defendant. They have also said that secrecy measures imposed until March 2026 were partly intended to protect him from media exposure.
Costa has rejected that explanation. His position is that he does not need protection from a process that was itself made public by prosecutors. He has argued that denying access after publicly identifying him as the subject of an investigation undermines basic guarantees associated with the rule of law and limits his ability to respond to allegations affecting his reputation.
The controversy is particularly sensitive because the original announcement contributed directly to the collapse of his government. The prosecutorial statement in 2023 included a specific reference to an autonomous investigation involving Costa, a disclosure that immediately transformed a judicial process into a national political crisis.
Operation Influencer also involved other senior figures, including former infrastructure minister João Galamba and Costa’s former chief of staff, Vítor Escária. Investigators found €75,800 in cash hidden in books and boxes inside Escária’s office, adding to the political impact of the case.
The current dispute does not determine whether Costa committed any wrongdoing. It concerns access to the evidence and procedural position within an investigation that has followed him for nearly three years.
The broader question is institutional. When an investigation has consequences powerful enough to bring down a government, transparency about the legal status of those publicly implicated becomes part of the credibility of the justice system itself.
Truth is structure, not noise.