In 1989, Delgado entered the Spanish Prosecutor Service, she was first assigned as a prosecutor at the
High Court of Justice of Catalonia. Later she was assigned to the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's office. From 1993, Delgado was a prosecutor at the
Audiencia Nacional. In that capacity, she led the prosecution on several high-profile drug and terrorist cases, as promoted several
Universal jurisdiction cases tried at the court. After the
2004 Madrid train bombings she specialised in
Islamic terrorism. For a short period of time (2006–2007), Delgado was the spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General's office. In 2011 she was a support prosecutor at the
International Criminal Court. As a prosecutor she has shown herself as favourable to universal jurisdiction and very vocal on corruption issues. In 2013, she opposed the extradition of
Hervé Falciani to Switzerland considering him a valuable asset in fight against tax fraud and corruption.
Minister of Justice, 2018–2020 After
Mariano Rajoy received a vote of no confidence,
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appointed Delgado as Minister of Justice in June 2018. As Minister of Justice she also holds the honorary position of First Notary of the Kingdom. Thus, on 7 June she took office as Minister before the King at
Palace of Zarzuela. During her time in office she had a difficult relationship with the opposition. Proof of this is that
Parliament requested her resignation three times. In September 2018, the
Senate requested her resignation for 149 votes in favour, 82 against and 7 abstentions. The reason, according to the opposition, was that the minister did not sufficiently defend the Supreme Court Justice, Pablo Llarena, before the
Belgian courts. On 9 October 2018, the
Congress of Deputies requested her resignation for 166 votes in favour, 91 against and 83 abstentions. The motion, at
People's Party initiative, considered that Delgado should not continue in the office because of her "perverse friendships" with the retired police commissioner
José Manuel Villarejo and the former
National Court justice
Baltasar Garzón. A month later, on 22 November 2018, the Congress of Deputies requested her resignation again for urging the
State Lawyers Corps to rule out the crime of rebellion to
jailed Catalan separatist leaders. On 24 October 2019, she was one of the representatives of the caretaker government in the
exhumation of Francisco Franco, serving as First Notary of the Kingdom, attesting to the incidentless extraction of the coffin with the remains of the dictator. She left the office of Minister of Justice on 13 January 2020, being replaced by the socialist
Juan Carlos Campo.
Attorney General, 2020–2022 After the
Sánchez II Government was sworn in, the
Council of Minister nominated her on 13 January 2020 as the next
Attorney General, succeeding
María José Segarra. On 15 January 2020 she left her position as
Member of the Congress of Deputies. Despite criticism from the opposition parties and some conservative prosecution associations to her nomination, the Plenary of
General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on 16 January 2020 approved her candidature by 12-7 votes. On 20 February 2020, she testified before the Justice Committee of the Congress of Deputies. Among her statements, she denied that having been a minister was a cause for not being appointed attorney general: She was officially appointed by the
Monarch on 26 February 2020. During
COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, on 18 October 2020 she tested positive for COVID-19, but with mild symptoms. In July 2022, she stepped down as Attorney General due to health issues. == References ==