Manuel Adorni has received the full-throated support of his boss in recent months, as scandals have popped up around the aide alleging property purchases via unreported transactions, lavish family holidays and cash expenses exceeding his income.
Adorni is a trusted ally and former spokesperson of the president, and his appearance in Congress was unusual.
Milei’s decision to stand by his chief of staff despite the allegations has contributed to a dent in his government’s approval ratings, with a study by Di Tella University showing a 12-percentage point drop in public support this month alone.
“I did not commit any crime and I am going to prove it in court,” Adorni said to applause from Milei and his cabinet colleagues.
“You are the corrupt ones,” Argentina’s self-declared anarcho-capitalist president told the press as he entered the building, having blocked journalists from entering the presidential palace since Thursday.
The Milei government has been dogged by a slew of corruption investigations.
One probe is focusing on the diversion of funds intended for people with disabilities, implicating the president’s sister and secretary general of the presidency Karina Milei.
She is accused of receiving a three-percent cut on the amount paid by the now-shuttered state disability agency for medicine bought from a pharmaceutical firm after the emergence of leaked recordings.
She denies the allegations and has not been charged.
Another investigation relates to an alleged cryptocurrency scam implicating both siblings.
A congressional committee in December accused the president of “alleged fraud” for promoting the $LIBRA meme coin scheme and attributed “political responsibility” to the pair.
The Argentine leader has claimed he “did not know the details of the project”, which incurred losses of hundreds of millions of dollars for investors.
Karina Milei also attended Wednesday’s hearing in a gesture of solidarity with Adorni.
Thousands of questions
The panoply of corruption allegations prompted lawmakers to have a blizzard of questions ready for the aide, in writing, prior to Wednesday’s hearing – more than 4,000 of them.
“How do you explain that you get paid in pesos and spend in dollars far more than what you earn?” asked left-wing deputy Myriam Bregman.
Adorni called the allegations against him “tendentious and false”.
The tense atmosphere spilt beyond Congress, with a handful of retired people gathering outside for a weekly protest against benefit cuts.
“I am here because people can’t take it anymore,” retiree Ana Martinez, 76, told AFP. “This is a crisis like none I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Adorni is a crook and has no shame. He uses the people’s money to travel. He’s a criminal,” she added.
In a separate development Wednesday, an Argentine court threw out corruption charges against former centre-left president Alberto Fernandez, who held office from 2019 to 2023.
The federal chamber of cassation annulled his indictment in a case involving allegations of irregular public sector insurance contracts for lack of evidence.
The court also lifted an asset freeze worth some 14.6 billion pesos (around US$10.3 million) and a travel ban against the former leader.
Proceedings against co-defendants in the case remain open.