“Without commenting on any specific case, there is an evident and abstract principle (…) a prime minister cannot be tapped without authorization from the Supreme Court of Justice, period. And even that must be very well considered before being authorized,” stated Paulo Rangel.
Rangel was responding to journalist Pedro Santos Guerreiro at the CNN Portugal International conference in Alcobaça, Leiria, after being asked to comment on reports about former PS Prime Minister António Costa, the current European Council President, being wiretapped in conversation with suspects in Operation Influencer without the knowledge of the higher courts.
Stating he did not wish to comment on specific cases, Rangel, a jurist, maintained that “there are matters in which the judiciary must consider the consequences of its actions” and argued that “authorizing the wiretapping of a prime minister is always of enormous constitutional delicacy that requires very serious deliberation.”
“Judicial authorization must be granted with what we call in English ‘self-restraint.’ It should be an exceptional and well-justified measure, meaning there must be very weighty reasons for it. Furthermore, prime ministers cannot be wiretapped without the proper judicial authorization, that cannot happen,” he emphasized.
The Diário de Notícias reported today that 22 wiretaps were made between António Costa and defendants in Operation Influencer João Galamba (then Secretary of State for Energy and Secretary of State for the Environment and Energy), Lacerda Machado (a friend and consultant to the government during the privatization of TAP), and Matos Fernandes (former Minister of Environment and Climate Action).
Today, the Attorney General’s Office stated that, during a recent review of all the wiretaps conducted as part of Operation Influencer, seven wiretaps were identified “where Prime Minister António Costa was also involved, a fact that, for various technical reasons, had not initially been detected.”
Out of these seven wiretaps, six were attempted contacts, noted the AG’s office in the same statement, emphasizing that “all telephone wiretaps conducted under these processes [Operation Influencer], without exception, were promptly presented for periodic review to the Investigating Judge of the Central Criminal Investigation Court (TCIC).”
The seven wiretaps in question “were immediately brought to the attention of the President of the STJ, through the investigating judge of the TCIC,” with the President of the STJ ruling that “he is no longer competent to know such matters as António Costa is no longer the prime minister.”
Out of these seven wiretaps, six were attempted contacts, referred to the AG in the same statement. The seven wiretaps in question “were immediately brought to the attention of the President of the STJ, through the investigating judge of the TCIC.”
Lusa | 11:33 – 21/11/2025
The Attorney General’s Office also reiterated that António Costa was never directly tapped or surveilled—neither when he was in office nor after leaving government.
The AG clarified, “Incidental communications involving Prime Minister António Costa were detected during wiretaps of other individuals,” adding that these wiretaps were always reported to the President of the Supreme Court of Justice.
The wiretaps reportedly occurred between 2020 and 2022, and the contacts involved João Galamba, then Secretary of State for Energy and Environment, Lacerda Machado, a friend and former consultant on the TAP privatization, and João Pedro Matos Fernandes, then Minister of Environment and Climate Action, according to Diário de Notícias.
