Italian PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui was handed a 10-month suspended sentence by a Vatican court in the leaked document scandal known as Vatileaks II.
A Spanish monsignor was sentenced to 18 months in prison, as well, following a trial that captivated European media as the court explored the source of confidential Vatican documents used by two reporters in bombshell books about the Catholic city.
Two Italian journalists were acquitted in the trial as the court found it did not have jurisdiction over the scribes.
Chaoqui was found guilty of conspiring with the monsignor, Lucio Vallejo Balda, but acquitted on a charge of passing the documents to the reporters. US News & World Report noted Chaouqui brought her newborn baby to court during the trial and "said she would have gone to prison, babe in arms, rather than appeal a conviction or ask for a papal pardon."
The Guardian reported that the PR consultant's lawyer told the Vatican court this week that Chaouqui should not be convicted just because she was "unlikeable, unpleasant, insufferable, arrogant and presumptuous."
The first Vatileaks scandal saw Pope Benedict XVI's butler convicted of turning over the pope's private correspondence.
Cornerstone Government Affairs has inked a $25K monthly pact with Qatar to advance the relationship of the Arab state and the US.
Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has teamed up with a crew of Republican heavy hitters to launch Watchtower Strategy, a public affairs firm that will focus on advocacy, strategy and strategic communications.
The National Association of Manufacturers has named Alexa Lopez VP of communications & public affairs, a newly created position. She was at the Transportation Security Administration.
