The news is from "Sábado" magazine. A pen drive found in November 2023 during a search of the official residence of then Prime Minister António Costa contains about 400 names and other personal data of agents of the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS), Strategic Intelligence Service and Defense (SIED), Judicial Police (PJ) and Tax Authority (AT). Among this confidential data were also those relating to the Attorney General of the Republic, Lucília Gago, and the national director of the Judicial Police Luís Neves.

By order of the new Attorney General of the Republic, Amadeu Guerra, issued in December 2024, the Public Ministry now wants to know where that pen-drive came from and what would have been the interest in keeping it in a safe at the Palace of São Bento. The case is complex. 

It all started with an investigation led by prosecutors Hugo Neto, Ricardo Lamas and João Paulo Centeno - which assumed the existence of evidence of corruption regarding lithium business and particularly in the "Star Campus" project in Sines. Members, employees and partners of the socialist government would be allegedly involved in the scheme. It is possible that the suspicions will not be confirmed, as happens in many other cases, and then those involved will have been the target of an injustice that has tarnished their lives.

The searches and arrests carried out on November 7, 2023 caused an uproar and led to the fall of the government. "Sábado" magazine revealed more details today. During searches carried out at the Prime Minister's official residence and which targeted his chief of staff, Vítor Escária, agents of the Public Security Police have found 75 thousand euros in cash (distributed in envelopes, a filing folder and a box of "Billecart Salmon" Champagne) and a strange pen drive which contained the identification and other personal data of hundreds of highly qualified employees of the country's security and tax system.

According to Escária's statement today, this pen drive would have arrived at the São Bento Palace anonymously in 2019, when the chief of staff was his predecessor Francisco André. The pen drive was not destroyed, the government did not send it to the Public Prosecutor's Office, nor to the Judicial Police, nor to Intelligence services. There were no official meetings about the matter. The pen drive remained in the possession of the government.

António Costa

The case is far from over and it is still not clear what António Costa's real role is. Initially, the three prosecutors considered him to be "suspicious", but he was later heard as a "declarant" by another prosecutor, called Rita Madeira, and apparently acquitted, which is why he ended up assuming the role of President of the European Council. The former prime minister declared today that as far as he is concerned, "the case is closed".

However, the pen-drive now complicates accounts that seemed closed. The television commentators are in a frenzy. It is not plausible that Costa, for five years, "never knew about the existence of the pen drive", as he now also claims. No one believes that the pen drive was selflessly kept in a safe, without any notice to the Public Prosecutor's Office and the authorities mentioned above. It is believed that the Prime Minister ordered the pen drive to be kept in the safe with the aim of being in possession of confidential information about the people exposed there, for purposes that could never be the purest, much less to look after the common good of the Portuguese citizens.

Who collects the sensitive data?

There is one possible explanation for now. In 2019, a Social Security employee, Marco Aragão, was arrested by the Judicial Police for illegally accessing the Social Security database, from which he had collected data on hundreds of agents from the intelligence services, Judicial Police, Tax Authority and others. The individual ended up being convicted in court. The material was seized and remained under the custody of the criminal proceedings.

The questions everyone asks

Who made the pen drive reach the Palace and for what purpose? Is it credible that it arrived anonymously, as Vítor Escária now claims? Assuming that the pen drive contains exactly the same confidential information seized from the convicted Marco Aragão, is it possible that it was diverted or copied from the criminal proceedings against him?

Is it credible that no one in the Prime Minister's office had access to the contents of the pen drive and yet decided to keep it in a safe? Is it credible that the office of Prime Minister kept the fact secret for five years, not communicating it to the Public Prosecutor's Office or to the directors of the services and security forces investigated?

Is it credible that Chief of Staff Francisco André kept the pen drive in the safe between 2019 and 2020, without having access to its contents and without informing the Prime Minister? Is it credible that Chief of Staff Vítor Escária kept the pen drive in the safe between 2019 and 2023 without informing the Prime Minister? What is the interest of both chiefs of staff in keeping the “pen-drive” in a safe?