President: Lower Chamber Chairman Is A “Criminal Progressing In The Field Of Fake News”

Iohannis specifically referred to the ironic showing of Dragnea on Monday, when he brought suitcases which contained files depicting scandals and accusations involving the president, which the social-democrat leader stated were “ignored” by anticorruption bodies.

“This is what happens when a criminal reaches the top of the state administration, and this Dragnea criminal is progressing, not in the field of the rule of law, but in that of fake news. It’s what today is called fake news, in the past were called lies,” said President Iohannis.

The president said that he has no knowledge of the briefcase found by investigative reporting outlet RISE Project, which contains possibly incriminating evidence regarding Dragnea-linked constructions company Tel Drum.

“I don’t know anything about these briefcases, I am not connected with them. The man (Dragnea, ed.) is desperate and has major problems, and he is looking to bring other things into discussion and tries to manipulate,” said the Romanian head of state.

Social Democrat Party (PSD) chairman Liviu Dragnea carried two briefcases at a party top brass meeting on Monday, mocking a recent announcement by investigative news outlet RISE Project about the discovery of a briefcase with documents regarding to the Dragnea-linked constructions company Tel Drum.

According to RISE Project, the briefcase in question contains “essential information from within Tel Drum, which was not found by anticorruption prosecutors when they raided the company last year”. This includes a 63 GB hard-drive with thousands of company bills, bank statements, documents which establish false companies, and tens of thousands of emails from a high-ranked company official.

The company has been linked for a long time with Social Democrat Party leader Liviu Dragnea, although he never officially held any office within it. It held near monopoly over public construction works in the county during Dragnea’s stint as Teleorman county council chairman, between 2000 and 2012.

Tel Drum is currently under investigation by anticorruption prosecutors, following a notification made by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), under the suspicion of having been illegally assigned an EU-funded public road restoration contract in the county.

Dragnea himself was officially indicted in the case by National Anticorruption Directorate in November 2017, being accused of multiple offences such as forming an organized criminal group, fraudulently using documents or statements to obtain EU funds and abuse of office for favoring Tel Drum when granting the contract.

 

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