MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Footage of Milei's interview twitched released

I understand it can cause you a legal mess, Viale reckoned as the advisor stepped in

Video footage of an advisor - believed to be Santiago Caputo - cutting President Javier Milei's interview with Jonatan Viale to have some inconvenient parts removed was leaked through X late Monday. “It can cause you a judicial mess,” Viale admits as he agrees to the interruption while the head of State sought to explain his side of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency scandal on TN in a friendly environment. The controversial part of the interview was aired live through YouTube.

As the conversation veered toward Milei's X account being of a personal nature and not that of the President as the bio would show, the advisor stepped in to change course. “It is good that you point this out as a citizen because I tweeted from my personal account,” said Milei, attempting to make those controversial postings not those of the President but of just another ordinary citizen.

1.
Así le dan órdenes a @JonatanViale

Nunca vi algo como esto.
Frena la conversación porque le dicen que puede complicar judicialmente a @JMilei . Eso es encubrimiento.

Y queda todo grabado.
Vean hasta el final.

Así manejan a sus comunicadores institucionales. Dejen de… pic.twitter.com/LFFE0Ubkp2

— ari lijalad (@arilijalad) February 18, 2025

The President was joking about questions being previously agreed upon, and Viale said he had all of them written down - in the sheets of paper he had in his hands - and approved by Spokesman Manuel Adorni, Presidential Secretary (and sister) Karina Milei, and Caputo. Then he reckoned the interview going that way could lead to some judicial repercussions. The advisor's intervention and the subsequent direction to “ask again about $LIBRA” were not aired on TN but were captured in a live YouTube broadcast, leading to further controversy over the unedited interview's content. It was Milei's first appearance after the cryptofiasco broke out. He even stopped his otherwise prolific social media production.

Regarding the Argentine Government's future legal steps, Milei said that that part was not among his field of expertise and that the right person to answer that was Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona.

Milei then insisted “I have nothing to hide, I did nothing wrong.” He also argued that there were not as many as 44,000 people affected by the scam since that figure has been blown up by bots. He believed that “in the best case scenario,” there would be about 5,000 people affected and not more than “5” Argentines.

“Those who went in there” did “it voluntarily,” Milei insisted. “If you go to the Casino and lose money....”