Manuel Adorni finally resigns as Cabinet chief after months of scandal

Manuel Adorni resigned as Argentina's cabinet chief on Saturday, telling president Javier Milei that "endless media attacks" had forced his hand – two weeks after admitting he had concealed around US$500,000 in his previous official asset declarations.

"The endless media attacks I have endured have led me to ask you, this time, to stand by me so I can close this chapter and protect myself and my family," Adorni wrote in an open letter to Milei published on X.

The 46-year-old, who is under investigation for alleged illicit enrichment, denies any wrongdoing.

Adorni has spent more than three months in the eye of the storm following revelations about property purchases and expensive trips made after he entered public life in December 2023.

Argentina's Judiciary, opposition lawmakers and government allies had all demanded to know the origin of the undisclosed funds, but Adorni has failed to provide answers.

Earlier this month, Adorni told LN+ channel in an interview that for years, as Argentina suffered chronically high inflation, he and his wife had saved "under the table, like all Argentines."

Over years of spiralling prices, Argentines traded their battered local pesos for dollars, which they often hoarded at home, in cash.

In recent weeks, he attributed the money to cryptocurrency investments made between 2014 and 2018.

"I will pay every last cent of tax I owe," he said.

But the explanation quickly unravelled: old videos surfaced in which Adorni made statements about cryptocurrency that contradicted his recent claims, and lawmakers pointed back to his own categorical assertion before the legislature in April that "there was never any concealment whatsoever" of his assets.

Karina Milei, the president's sister and presidential chief-of-staff, offered measured solidarity on X. "We know of the difficult – and undeserved – moment you and your family have been going through for months, and we respect your decision," she wrote.

The opposition was less charitable. "Adorni is leaving and good, because he's a thief," wrote opposition Peronist deputy Kelly Olmos on X.

An accountant by training, Adorni rose to public prominence over the past five years through social media and as an economics commentator on radio and television.

When Milei took office in December 2023, he appointed him presidential spokesman – a role Adorni filled with a direct, sardonic style at press conferences. "I have the best spokesman in the world," Milei used to say.

Adorni went on to lead La Libertad Avanza's legislative ticket in Buenos Aires City in 2025, though he did not take up his seat. Following the ruling party's victory and the exit of Guillermo Francos from government, Adorni was appointed Cabinet chief in November of that year.

The crisis began in March, when it emerged his wife had travelled aboard the presidential plane to New York. Reports then emerged about expensive flights on private jets to Uruguay. The revelations triggered a federal investigation into alleged illicit enrichment, after undeclared property and expenditure inconsistent with his declared income came to light.

The resignation strikes at Milei's innermost circle of trust. The president had backed Adorni until the last moment, though he softened his position slightly on Friday. "I believe in his honesty, but if the courts find him guilty I'll eject him with a kick," he told one media outlet.

The case had also opened internal fault lines. The PRO party of former centre-right president Mauricio Macri – a government ally – called the affair a "serious lapse," while ruling-party senator Patricia Bullrich described it as an "ethical omission."

Political analyst Facundo Cruz put it bluntly: the situation had become "a boomerang for the government," with each attempt by Adorni to explain his finances only making "an already opaque situation murkier."

 

Adorni's resignation letter

Dear President,

Thank you. Thank you for understanding my reasons, and for understanding me: for the first time since that December 10, 2023, I am going against your wishes. Thank you for this time accepting my resignation as Chief of Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation.

You know everything I have suffered throughout this time. The endless media attacks I have endured have led me to ask you, this time, to stand by me, so that I can close this chapter and protect myself and my family. The media campaigns have gone to extremes – not only against me, but against my wife, my young children, my friends, my family, and even my neighbours and those close to me.

The lies that have been told were of the most varied kind: trips that never happened, astronomical and extravagant spending, non-existent and fabricated contracts between my wife and the state or public companies, mansions and luxury cars, crypto "farms" operated in collusion with the Presidential Security detail, nepotism, personal expenses paid with public funds, the existence of an alleged USB drive "full of dollars" (yes, President, a USB drive "full of dollars"), companies in Uruguay, cosmetic surgeries costing thousands of dollars, and dozens of other falsehoods. They have even suggested I paid millions to keep people quiet about me.

I have been branded a criminal and a corrupt official without a single act of corruption to my name. They went so far as to claim that my continued tenure in office was because I had you and the presidential chief-of-staff under my thumb through blackmail. They also attacked my personal life: they went after my children, my wife, my family, my friends, and everyone I hold dear. They confused the public with the private and the intimate. They invented lovers, children, siblings, divorces, and even a biological father different from my real one. They struck at the deepest part of a human being – or at least what any decent person would choose to hold above all else. Protecting those I love is precisely what I am reaffirming today.

There is a limit to cruelty, and I have found mine. We have given everything – in strictly professional terms, but also as a family, and spiritually. Perhaps it is simply that ordinary people are not allowed to occupy these positions. Or perhaps they are: you are Argentina's only hope. I no longer say this from the inside, but now from the outside. My life before public life was always oriented towards ensuring that my children might one day be able to leave and seek a better future elsewhere. Since we took office, I worked only for the opposite to happen – so that they would never have to leave the country. And you are the only guarantee that it will. I hope society keeps choosing you, always, every day. I will do so from wherever I find myself. Everything I could contribute to the country and to the cause, I have already done, at your side. I regret that the harassment, the lies and the media's constant attempts to destroy my reputation sought to cause us so much harm – but I cannot continue to expose so many people I love to this media bloodbath. I am a simple citizen who one day wanted to contribute to a project that is placing Argentina at the top of the world; an ordinary citizen, with a life that is no more and no less than the one I have always had. Unfortunately, not everyone wants what we want, Mr President.

Despite these circumstances, I am proud to have been part of this journey, and to have stood by you through every achievement we have had as a government. I am glad to have been at your side, and at the side of the presidential chief-of-staff, the fundamental pillar of every step we have taken. As you know, I also fulfilled to the letter, right up until the last day, that special request you made of me that night at the Olivos Presidential Residence, minutes after offering me the role of Cabinet chief in your government.

Thank you, President. Thank you for having trusted me from the very beginning, and for standing by me through this so unjust, painful and draining process for me and my family. Thank you for not being swayed by the old politics, or the media, or the pressures – whether political or journalistic. Thank you for being a person of integrity, because ultimately we both know that is what life comes down to.

Allow me to take the liberty of congratulating and thanking my work teams, who from my previous position in government did everything to ensure your objectives were met. Thank you to them too for giving everything they had.

My thanks also to the ministerial teams and to each of your ministers for their warmth, their support and, above all, for pushing day after day towards the north you have set, President.

Thank you too to all those who supported me, inside and outside government. Thank you to those who, without knowing me, were able to read the truth amid so many lies.

I close this chapter. I step back calm and composed – but above all, with a clear conscience and firm in my convictions.

Do you know what, President? Tonight I am going to sleep in absolute peace with myself and with what I have done for the country. I hope that many of those who did everything to harm me can one day achieve the same. Life is made of small things – those I never lost, and would never allow myself to lose.

Here I end, President. It has been a true honour to serve you, and through you, the Homeland. Allow me to insist: the future of Argentina depends on you and your ideas.

Thank you, Javier. Thank you, Karina.

A huge embrace.

Until always.

Manuel Adorni

 

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL