appointed. 4 May 2005: The new Attorney General's office announced they would drop contempt charges against López Obrador on a technicality. In summary, it declared, he was guilty but his unique post as "Head of Government", of recent creation, had not been incorporated in all the laws. The law only had provisions for governors or municipal president. López Obrador was neither. Hence, the wording of the relevant article made it unclear if a penalty for his crime exists. The announcement was refuted by criminal law experts. On the one hand, they contended, because there is a clear penalty due legal precedents. On the other hand, they claimed, the Attorney General cannot declare guilt nor innocence, even less interpret the law. Thereby, the Attorney General could not drop charges due to the nature of the offense and because charges were filed by a private company. The company followed the suit. December 2005: Chief Justice Mariano Azuela Güitrón further criticized the case dismissal. He said that neither the President nor Congress can declare innocence nor close the matter for political reasons, as he claimed Fox did. (According to published reports, Chief Justice Mariano Azuela had discussed the desafuero of López Obrador with President Fox as early as late 2004, well before Congress took action, a highly irregular act.) January 2006: Marisela Morales, the Attorney General's official directly in charge of the case since the beginning, left her post at the unit responsible for prosecuting crimes committed by government officials. With her departure, all high-level officials in charge of the case have been replaced, but the Attorney General's office did state, shortly after Azuela's speech in late December, that charges against López Obrador are still pending. The aftermath The loss of his constitutional immunity appeared to be only the beginning of a long legal and political struggle. Aside from the political power at risk, the untested legal system has shown deficiencies which would further prolong controversies. After the deputies' vote, the Asamblea Legislativa del Distrito Federal rose a constitutional controversy against them claiming it was they who should have voted since they are similar to a state Congress (the Federal District is not a state). The federal deputies' filed their own complaint, and both were accepted by the Supreme Court. Both were in effect simultaneously, so AMLO was and was not the Head of Government. When a judge knew about the charges, two