Abin: PF investigation puts Bolsonarism and STF in crisis – 01/25/2024 – Power

This Thursday (25), the Federal Police carried out search and seizure warrants in an investigation into the alleged political use of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) against political opponents of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The main target of the operation is federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ), former director of Abin and pre-candidate for mayor of Rio de Janeiro. The PF even asked for the suspension of the parliamentarian’s mandate, but the measure was not agreed by the PGR and was denied by the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Alexandre de Moraes.

The suspicions that came to light in today’s operation caused a political reaction in Brasília, with the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, speaking of “one of the biggest scandals in history” and the “end of a skein that involved tens of thousands of people” .

On the other hand, the case should cause even more tension in the relationship between Congress and the Supreme Court, as it was the second operation in just over a week involving searches inside the Legislative headquarters. Bolsonarists are trying to articulate measures to review the powers of the STF when it returns from recess, in February, and say there is political persecution.

Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) wrote on social media: “Another chapter of the dictatorship of the Judiciary. It is up to the Senate to stop this persecution and preserve freedoms.”

The PF targets Abin’s use of Israeli-made FirstMile spy software and is investigating whether the agency produced reports on STF ministers and Bolsonaro’s opponents. On another front, the investigation found evidence that Abin acted to provide information about ongoing investigations into Jair Renan and Flávio Bolsonaro, sons of the former president.

Deputy Ramagem denied any use or relationship with Abin’s spying software.

“No operation plan, in Abin’s three years, signed by me, included the use of FirstMile [como um pedido]”, said the deputy, in an interview with GloboNews, this Thursday.

One of the cases cited in the monitoring investigation was that of the current Minister of Education, Camilo Santana (PT), who was governor of Ceará. An excerpt from the decision cites a report that one of the police officers investigated had been caught flying a drone near the then governor’s house.

In the document in which he authorized searches and seizures, Moraes also states that there was illegal monitoring of the prosecutor responsible for investigating the murder of councilor Marielle Franco (PSOL) and driver Anderson Gomes.

“The instrumentalization of Abin to monitor the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor and coordinator of the task force on qualified homicides perpetrated against councilwoman Marielle Franco and the driver who accompanied her was clear,” wrote Moraes.

The operation, called Approximate Surveillance, investigates a “criminal organization that set up shop in Abin with the aim of illegally monitoring public authorities and other people, using geolocation tools on mobile devices without due judicial authorization”.

The program investigated by the PF has the capacity to obtain georeferencing information from cell phones. According to people with knowledge of the tool, it does not allow access to connection content or message exchanges.

“These events make known the existence of what the representation [policial] calls it a parallel Abin, used to collect sensitive data on relevant authorities and political agents”, wrote the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet.

According to the PF, “Abin Paralela” created during the Ramagem administration tried to link Moraes and fellow STF minister Gilmar Mendes to the PCC criminal faction.

For the corporation, information about the attempt to link ministers to the PCC was found in documents seized from Abin.

“The Previa Nini.docx file shows the distortion, for political purposes, of the providence, indicating the ultimate intention of linking the lawyer Nicole Fabre and the Ministers of the Federal Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes with the criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC, fueling the spread of fake news against Supreme Court magistrates”, said the PGR about the documents found by the PF.

The PF claims that Abin under Ramagem also used the FirstMile software to monitor the then president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, and former deputy Joice Hasselmann.

The monitoring investigated in the operation, says the PF, was carried out by federal agent Felipe Arlota, one of the targets who was removed from his position by decision of Moraes. The police officer is close to senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), Bolsonaro’s eldest son.

The police are also investigating alleged use of the agency to favor Flávio and Jair Renan.

In the case of Bolsonaro’s youngest son, Abin would have acted to help him, as he was the target of an investigation by the PF regarding his relationships with companies that maintained and were interested in contracts with the federal government.

Abin agents tried to disrupt the investigation and collect information with the aim of avoiding “risks to Bolsonaro’s image.”

A federal police officer stationed in Abin even followed one of the targets of the investigation, who, suspicious, called the Military Police.

The police officer was interviewed by the PF and confirmed that he worked directly with Ramagem and that he was tasked with gathering information about the case being investigated.

Flávio, in turn, would have benefited from Abin’s efforts to gather information against Federal Revenue auditors.

Bolsonaro’s son at the time was being investigated in the case of the Alerj crack (Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly) and tried to point out irregularities in the Revenue as a way of nullifying the investigation.

After a meeting between Flávio’s lawyers and Bolsonaro, Abin agents reportedly produced reports about how the senator should act to free himself from the investigations.

In the document, sent to Flávio Bolsonaro’s defense via app message, paths were outlined for the senator to follow to dismantle the accusations against him.

In a statement, Flávio Bolsonaro said it was a lie that Abin had acted to favor him. “This is complete nonsense and another attempt to create false narratives to attack the Bolsonaro surname,” he said.

Jair Renan’s lawyer, former minister of the Superior Electoral Court Admar Gonzaga told Sheet that Bolsonaro’s youngest son “has nothing to hide that requires action from anyone, especially illegally.”

He also classified the investigation involving Jair Renan as a “work of fiction” and a “narrative that has no head or tail”. “The equipment was not purchased at the time of [ex-]President Bolsonaro. What I’m seeing is political speculation on this issue,” he declared.

This Thursday’s action is an offshoot of Operation Last Mile, launched in October 2023 to investigate the use of FirstMile. In this new phase, the main focus is on police officers who worked at Abin, especially at the CIN (National Intelligence Center), a structure linked to Ramagem’s office at the agency during the Bolsonaro government.

In total, seven federal police officers were targeted and were removed from public office.

In addition to Ramagem, at least two PF agents, Marcelo Araújo Bormevet and Felipe Arlotta Freitas, are targets of this Thursday’s measures. Federal delegate Carlos Afonso Gonçalves, former head of the CIN, was also removed from his position.

The former director of Abin was allegedly corrupted by two Abin officers who threatened to disclose the use of spy software after the agency considered dismissing them in an internal administrative process for participating in an Army bidding fraud.

In an interview with GloboNews, Ramagem denied all the accusations and said that there is a “salad of narratives”, without a set of evidence, and that he never used, had access to or even had the FirstMile passwords.

“We never had the use, execution, management or password of these systems,” he said, referring to him and his direct team.

Regarding the possibility of irregular use of the espionage tool, he stated: “If the police officer uses the weapon incorrectly, it is not the director general’s fault. If the Revenue [Federal] has a new system and uses it incorrectly, it’s not the fault of the Director General of Revenue”.