Buenos Aires, May 6, 2026, 12:03 ART
- A prosecutor turned down the call to immediately arrest Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni. Still, investigators are pressing on with phone forensics.
- The case focuses on alleged illicit enrichment, raising the question of whether the public official’s wealth and spending line up with lawful income.
- The inquiry comes at a moment when President Javier Milei is dealing with sagging approval ratings, mounting economic pressure, and a string of scandals dogging his administration.
Federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita shot down a lawmaker’s push to have Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni taken into custody right away, but Judge Ariel Lijo kept the case open, ordering a forensic check of a contractor’s phone in the ongoing illicit-enrichment investigation.
For Adorni—Milei’s confidant and ex-presidential spokesman—the ruling offers only brief breathing room. The case isn’t closed: investigators have turned to phone records, searching for any calls or messages that could back up contractor Matías Tabar’s statement that Adorni reached out to him ahead of his testimony.
The timing is key: Adorni stands out as a public face of Milei’s austerity push, and the president’s popularity owes much to his anti-graft stance and criticism of the political “caste.” Leaving Adorni in place now links Milei more directly to a legal case that opposition lawmakers are wielding to challenge the administration’s clean-government narrative.
Prosecutors heard from Tabar that Adorni shelled out roughly $245,929 in U.S. cash for upgrades on a property in the Indio Cuá gated community, Exaltación de la Cruz, not far from Buenos Aires. No invoices, no written agreement—just payments for new floors, windows, furniture, plus a revamped pool featuring a waterfall, according to his statement.
Reports in the case put the original purchase price at $120,000—well below what’s now being claimed for renovations. Casa Rosada pushed back on the contractor’s number, saying it plans to bring in an expert to contest the testimony.
Adorni flatly rejected the allegations. Facing Congress last week, he insisted he would stay on, telling lawmakers, “I did not commit any crime, and I will prove it in court.” He pushed back against scrutiny of his travels and assets, arguing those matters were part of his private life, not official government business. Buenos Aires Herald
Milei used the congressional session as a stage, walking in flanked by ministers and top officials. “Show my face,” Adorni told deputies, explaining his attendance. Milei’s move? A clear sign he’s standing by a close ally, not about to drop one of his key aides. Buenos Aires Times
The fallout is showing up in the numbers. Milei’s approval rating slid to 35.5% in April, according to AtlasIntel polling for Bloomberg News—a drop of nearly 10 points since the year began. Corruption now tops the list of concerns for Argentines.
The Adorni case comes as the economy softens. Marcelo J. García, Americas director at Horizon Engage, put it to the Associated Press like this: plenty of Argentines just aren’t feeling the upside of Milei’s agenda—he called that “Milei’s biggest political risk.” AP News
Other files are making the rounds inside the administration. Reporting has flagged suspected irregular spending at state-run nuclear company Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, cases of undeclared assets tied to additional officials, and the $LIBRA crypto affair — this one erupted after Milei touted the token, only to see its value crash.
Milei faces a different sort of danger here: the scandal could shift from being pinned on one aide to casting suspicion over the president’s entire inner circle. For the opposition, the stakes are flipped. Should the phone review or asset checks undermine Tabar’s story, the government is poised to claim it’s just another orchestrated political attack.
Adorni keeps his job for now; the attempt to arrest him didn’t go through, and the case is still active in court. Milei is left backing a chief of staff who keeps facing questions his explanations haven’t put to rest.
