For the first time, Argentine President Javier Milei directly rejected accusations of bribery against his sister and inner circle during a parade in Buenos Aires province on Wednesday. Demonstrators pelted the presidential caravan with stones and eggs, and he was escorted away.

The accusations surfaced in audio recordings of disability agency head Diego Spagnuolo, who has since been dismissed, that were leaked to the press. “Everything he says is a lie,” Milei said.

In the recordings, Spagnuolo accuses the president’s sister, Karina Milei, of taking kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for government contracts.

“We are going to take him to court, and we are going to prove he lied,” said the president. His comments appeared to confirm that the recordings were genuine. Spagnuolo was a close friend who had also acted as his lawyer.

Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos gave a state of affairs report to Congress on Wednesday, during which he called the audio leak “a political operation.”

The judiciary has launched an investigation, seizing phones, documents, and money from government officials and the Suizo Argentina pharmaceutical company.

Milei was speaking from the back of a pick-up truck as part of a parade in Lomas de Zamora, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, ahead of the September 7 Buenos Aires provincial elections.

The president was joined by Karina, who is also his secretary general. Spagnuolo accused her of taking lion’s share of the proceeds of the bribes. Candidates Sebastián Pareja and José Luis Espert were also present at the event.

A demonstration was taking place, and protesters threw stones, branches, and eggs at the president. Federal police agents protected him with bulletproof shields and sped up, avoiding someone who jumped in front of the vehicle. After about three blocks, Milei got into an armored truck and left. Espert left separately on a motorbike. It was not immediately clear who had organized the demonstration.

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said that nobody was injured. He blamed the incident on “activists of the old politics, Kirchnerism in its purest form” and said they represented “a model of violence that only the cavemen of the past want.”

At 4:02 p.m., Milei uploaded a picture of himself, Karina, and Espert in the Olivos presidential residence, saying it was taken “after passing through Lomas de Zamora, where the stone-throwing kukas [Kirchnerist] with no ideas resorted to violence again.”