Warchoł, Woś, Kaleta and Romanowski filed lawsuits against critics of the government. Bodnar calls for a refund

As “Wyborcza” writes, the case concerns the so-called SLAPPs, i.e. lawsuits brought against critics of the government, with the aim of suppressing this criticism.

After the change of power, during an audit at the Ministry of Justice, it turned out that “the parties to many processes financed by the ministry were not the Minister of Justice, the ministry or the state treasury represented by the minister.” “The data obtained from the courts show that they concerned Ziobro's people, but as private persons,” we read.

These were the then deputy ministers of justice: Michał Woś, Sebastian Kaleta, Marcin Romanowski and Marcin Warchoł.

Therefore – the newspaper learned – led by Adam Bodnar the ministry sent them “demands for the return of the value of the financial benefit obtained”, i.e. a refund of the remuneration received from the ministry's money to the law firm handling these processes.

“Woś has the most to give – PLN 15,498. Kaleta must pay PLN 9,815, and Romanowski and Warchoł – PLN 4,391 each,” we read. If they do not return the money, the ministry announces legal action, the newspaper added.

“Wyborcza” indicates that in the SLAPPs the deputy ministers were represented by the law firm of attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, who is associated with a fundamentalist ultra-Catholic organization Ordo Iuris.

“In the years 2019-2023, Lewandowski's office earned PLN 732,000 on the basis of contracts for consulting and legal services to the ministry. During the PiS era, it was one of the few most involved in the practice of harassing the media and critics with lawsuits,” we read.

It was this law firm that represented deputy ministers in trials against, among others, “Gazeta Wyborcza”, RASP, the owner of “Newsweek” and the Onet portal, and against politicians of the then opposition – Izabela LeszczynaHanna Gill-Piątek or Roman Giertych.

“Attorney Lewandowski claimed that the powers of attorney were granted to him only by natural persons. And if this is the case, there are no grounds to conclude that legal services for Ziobro's people were provided in connection with their function in the ministry – stated the Ministry of Justice,” we read in ” Wyborcza”.

Attorney Lewandowski commented on the “Wyborcza” article in a post on

“The gross amount from the article given from 2019 mainly covers the representation of the Reprivatization Commission (statutory requirement for representation in administrative courts) and the Department of Legal Professions. The amount for handling matters in the field of press law, protection of property and criminal cases is a small part of this amount,” he argued .

As he added, “the power of attorney is granted by a natural person, because in cases regarding the protection of personal rights or press law, only such persons have legal standing.” “The texts (that were at issue – ed.) concerned specific people from the management and were directly related to the function,” wrote Lewandowski.