On Saturday, the President’s press spokesperson, Bartłomiej Leśkiewicz, responded to media reports claiming that attorney Bartosz Lewandowski was a co-author of the presidential bill on judicial reform. Leśkiewicz stated that the Chancellery of the President consults draft legislation with experts; however, responsibility for preparing the final version always rests with the Chancellery of the President (KPRP).
In a post on X, the presidential spokesperson announced that the presidential bill concerning the judiciary and its explanatory memorandum were prepared within the Chancellery of the President, and that their final form was drafted by lawyers from KPRP. On Saturday, lawyer Marcin Szwed published a post on X suggesting that the author of the explanatory memorandum for the bill might be attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, who has represented, among others, Zbigniew Ziobro. In response to Szwed, Lewandowski acknowledged that he had participated in the preparation of the bill but emphasized that he was not its author.
On Thursday, President Karol Nawrocki vetoed an amendment to the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary. He explained that, in his view, the amendment “introduces a new stage of chaos and opens the door to political influence over judges.” At the same time, the President announced that he was submitting his own bill aimed at restoring the right to a court and to have cases heard without undue delay. That same day, the website of the Chancellery of the President published files containing the text of the proposed bill and its explanatory memorandum.
In his post on X, Marcin Szwed, a lawyer cooperating with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, pointed out that when viewing the file information for the explanatory memorandum of the presidential bill, Bartosz Lewandowski was listed as its author, an attorney affiliated with Ordo Iuris who has represented numerous Law and Justice (PiS) politicians.
Lewandowski commented directly on Szwed’s post. “As far as I am aware, the bill was consulted and prepared by many individuals, which the President and his team are, after all, fully entitled to do,” he wrote. He added that he had participated in preparing the bill and that the amendments to the provisions concerning complaints about excessive length of proceedings were his personal idea. The attorney explained that, apparently, the version of the file uploaded to the KPRP website was the one he had generated most recently.
Later that evening, the President’s press spokesperson, Bartłomiej Leśkiewicz, addressed the reports.
“The Act, together with its explanatory memorandum, was prepared within the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. Their final form was drafted by lawyers from KPRP,” wrote Leśkiewicz. He added that in the case of the judiciary bill, as well as during the preparation of other legislative proposals, KPRP consults and draws upon the expert knowledge of individuals and professional circles dealing with specific subject matters. “This does not change the fact that responsibility for preparing the final version always rests with the Chancellery of the President,” the presidential spokesperson concluded.