Abin talks about distortion of the PF, which wants to change the agency – 01/26/2024 – Power

The operation that targeted federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem (PL-RJ) this Thursday (25) highlighted a new episode of conflict between the leadership of the Federal Police and Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency).

On the one hand, members of the agency claim to see a distorted PF narrative in the reports sent to the minister reporting on the case, Alexandre de Moraes, from the STF. On the other hand, members of the police say behind the scenes they believe that the evidence shows the need for a change in command of the agency.

The two institutions have been at odds with each other since the beginning of the Lula (PT) government.

This Thursday, the PF carried out a search and seizure involving federal police officers involved in the use of FirstMile, the spy software that would have been used by the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in a type of “parallel Abin” for illegal espionage.

One of the search targets was Ramagem, head of Abin in the Bolsonaro government, now a federal deputy and PL pre-candidate for Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

According to excerpts from the PF report cited in Moraes’ decision, Abin management under the Lula (PT) government “carried out actions that interfered with the smooth running of the investigation.”

For the PF, there was “collusion on the part of those investigated with Abin’s current senior management”, in the sense of not attributing due gravity to the facts discovered.

The report quotes the agency’s number two, Alessandro Moretti, as saying that, in a meeting with those being investigated, he stated that the investigation into the case had “a political basis and would pass.”

The investigator responsible for the case says that the attitude of Moretti, who is a PF delegate, is not what was expected from a civil servant who, until December 2022, held the role of Director of Intelligence at the Federal Police.

Abin members claim that the statement that the current management would collude to protect acts of the Bolsonaro administration is completely unreasonable. They say the mention is an attempt to cause political wear and tear and force a change, a desire of the PF leadership since the agency’s names were announced.

The meeting that took place at the end of March, they say, was held at the request of those being investigated and aimed to make the investigation viable, the opposite of what the PF says now. In addition to Moretti, the current general director of Abin, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, participated in the meeting.

According to reports, the routine of investigations by the Abin Internal Affairs Department until then consisted of investigations that led to nothing because the civil servants under suspicion always refused to testify and cooperate.

With the meeting, those investigated would have had the guarantee that secrecy inherent to the function would not be affected and would have agreed to testify in the open internal investigation and, later, in the Federal Police investigation.

Also according to Abin employees, Moretti’s speech about “political background” at the meeting would be a reference to the behind-the-scenes fight between the agency and the PF and would not be related to the investigation against those being investigated.

In this Thursday’s search and seizure, laptops and a cell phone belonging to Abin were found with Ramagem. The agency will carry out an investigation to find out how and why this material was still in the former director’s possession.

On the PF side, investigators say there are already a series of elements of obstruction of justice on the part of Abin’s current management.

In addition to the meeting with those being investigated, members of the PF claim that the organization’s management hindered the work by not providing requested information. They also sent the wrong documents to the PF, they say.

Therefore, for these investigators, it was necessary to carry out the search and seizure operation at the agency.

One of the backgrounds of the behind-the-scenes feud between Abin and the PF concerns the appointment of Luiz Fernando Corrêa and then his numbers 2 and 3. The group that currently commands the PF also had an appointment for the general directorship of Abin, but was unsuccessful.

In addition to Moretti, PF Intelligence director in Bolsonaro’s last year, Paulo Maurício Fortunato —who held leadership positions in the agency during Ramagem’s administration— was allocated to the Secretariat of Planning and Management, the third highest position in the agency.

Fortunato was the target of a PF operation in October 2023, when police officers found US$171,000 in his home, and he ended up leaving office.

Members of the PF say that suspicions about the use of the software arose before Corrêa’s appointment as general director of Abin and that he could have avoided this deterioration.

Abin members refute this argument, stating that Moretti and Fortunato cannot be classified as Bolsonarists and only became the target of internal artillery due to the power struggle within the intelligence and public security area of ​​the Lula government.