Francesca Chaouqui, a public relations expert and former consultant to the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, strongly denied that he leaked confidential Vatican documents to journalists.
“I can assure you that no reserved documents ever passed from my hands,” Chaouqui said. “Never, never,” she during her testimony at the resumption of the trial that centered on the publication of two books based on leaked documents.
Chaouqui said she only gave journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi an invitation to a Vatican reception and a collection of newspaper clippings.
Nuzzi’s book, “Merchants in the Temple,” and Emiliano Fittipaldi’s “Avarice” depict a Vatican plagued by financial irregularities.
Chaouqui is on trial along with Monsignor Vallejo Balda, Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant, Nuzzi, and Fittipaldi.
Balda, Chaouqui, and Maio have been accused of “committing several illegal acts of divulging news and documents concerning fundamental interests of the Holy See.”
Nuzzi and Fittipaldi were accused of “soliciting and exercising pressure, especially on Vallejo Balda, in order to obtain confidential documents and news.”
Sources