Vatileaks 2 defendant
Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of the financial exposé book The Way of
the Cross, on Wednesday testified that he had never threatened
or pressured a co-defendant accused of passing him confidential
documents, Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda.
In the trial, investigative reporters Emiliano Fittipaldi
and Nuzzi are accused of using leaked documents from
three Vatican officials to write two expose'-style books,
respectively Avarice and The Way of the Cross, which
respectively examine the Vatican's financial empire and Pope
Francis's efforts to bring about reform.
The other defendants are Italian PR expert Francesca
Chaouqi and Spanish prelate Balda, both former members of the
now-defunct COSEA commission set up to advise Pope Francis on
the reform of the Holy See's economic and administrative
structure, and Balda's former assistant Nicola Maio.
In three hours of testimony Wednesday, which took up the
whole session of the day, the ninth hearing in the case, Nuzzi
said "I never exerted pressure on Msgr Vallejo Balda to have the
documents".
He said he had not considered the papers he was given as
"secret".
"I spoke about privileges and violations," he said.
Nuzzi also said that he had always regarded Chaouqui as
being unreliable.
"I thought that then and I still think that," he said.
"She makes too many messes," Nuzzi said.
Chaoqui, who is pregnant, says she had a relationship with
Msgr Balda - something he denies.
Nuzzi declined to answer questions about where he had
obtained a recording of Pope Francis's speech to a closed-door
session of the COSEA commission.
He said he was doing so out of a journalist's need to
protect his sources.
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