Action targeting Bolsonaro accelerates with specific focus – 02/03/2023 – Politics

The ineligibility action against Jair Bolsonaro (PL) with faster progress and appointed as the first candidate to be judged was presented by the PDT and focuses on the meeting with ambassadors held by the then president in July last year, in which he repeated theories of the conspiracy on voting machines and promoted coup threats.

Of the 17 actions that could make Bolsonaro ineligible, 2 have as their main target attacks on the electoral process and the ballot box. Only the PDT, however, had a single episode as a focus.

If convicted in any of them, Bolsonaro will not be able to run for eight years from the date of the election.

The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) set a precedent in 2021 on the possibility of ineligibility for attacks on the fairness of the electoral process, already in the context of Bolsonaro’s speeches to the system, when he revoked the mandate of state deputy Fernando Francischini due to a live in his social networks on Election Day 2018.

The use of the state apparatus is also identified as illegal by the PDT, such as the fact that the meeting with ambassadors took place at the Alvorada Palace (official residence of the Presidency) and that it was broadcast by the state-owned TV Brasil, which is part of the EBC (Brazilian Agency of communication).

According to the author of the action, the then president and candidate broadcast the recording of the event on his networks for electoral purposes.

“Bolsonaro distorted the performance of the act to propagate his campaign program, which among few things, includes attacks on the integrity of the electoral process as the main support of his speech”, says an excerpt from the piece.

In addition to being restricted to one episode, the main evidence of the process, the video of the meeting, was delivered via pen drive by the PDT, which did not make requests for the production of evidence —which could include, for example, the presentation of documents by authorities, breaches of secrecy and expertise.

Bolsonaro’s defense, for its part, only asked to hear three witnesses – initially there were four, but the defense backtracked on one of the names.

“We didn’t ask for anything to prove it, they presented three witnesses, who have already been heard, so now they just need a vote”, says Walber Agra, the lawyer who signs the PDT action.

During the meeting with the ambassadors, Bolsonaro discredited the electoral system and attacked ministers of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

The content of Bolsonaro’s speeches is not refuted in the play. The PDT claims that the false character of the statements had already been pointed out by the Electoral Justice itself, by the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) and also by checking agencies and press vehicles.

For the PDT, Bolsonaro committed abuse of political power and misuse of social communication media. Among the requirements for conviction is the seriousness of the alleged fact.

One of Bolsonaro’s lines of defense was to maintain that the speeches at the event were made as head of state and as an act of government, with the aim of “dispelling doubts about the transparency of the electoral process”. They also point out that the target audience of the event was not voters, but people without Brazilian citizenship.

In January of this year, the PDT asked that the coup draft found by the Federal Police during a search and seizure at the house of Anderson Torres, who was Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice and Security, be included in the action. It was a proposal for a decree to establish a state of defense at the headquarters of the TSE.

Bolsonaro’s defense contested the inclusion, arguing that it would broaden the scope of the action and that, at the stage the process was at (in which, for example, the testimony of the witnesses had already been initiated), it would correspond to the violation of the contradictory and legal certainty.

The PDT, in turn, argued that the document does not expand the cause of action and that it “serves as evidence to bring more evidence to the essential facts already delimited”.

In a decision already endorsed by the TSE plenary, the electoral inspector-general, Benedito Gonçalves, who is the rapporteur for the ineligibility actions, considered that the document is connected to the initial allegations.

According to people close to the ministers, the indication is that one of the actions should be judged this semester, before the retirement of Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, in May, and the entry of Kassio Nunes Marques into the TSE, a minister appointed to the Supreme by Bolsonaro.

Regarding the attacks on the electoral system, in addition to that of the PDT, there is yet another action presented by the coalition of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

One of the differences is that it takes a much broader view, highlighting episodes that took place about a year before the election, such as the leak of the Federal Police investigation investigating a hacker attack on the TSE, with the meeting with ambassadors being one of several facts.

According to Volgane Carvalho, secretary general of Abradep (Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law), a broader action is a legal strategy that takes into account the TSE’s understanding of the recognition of abuse “by the body of work”.

“I have small conducts that alone do not produce the effect, but, when I look at the macro, their succession, they have the capacity to produce this effect”, says Carvalho. “But then it has a cost. As it is too broad, it makes the process more complex and will drag on for much longer”, she says.

The PT action asks for the sharing of evidence from the STF inquiry and the TSE administrative inquiry, and has seven other politicians as targets of the action, in addition to Bolsonaro and his vice-presidential candidate Braga Netto – among them are Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro.

The coalition also requests that Bolsonaro himself be subpoenaed to testify.

Among actions with a smaller scope, there are, for example, three that target Bolsonaro’s speeches on September 7th and also on a trip to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. In each case, it is necessary to outline the severity of the episode.

There is yet another action by Lula’s coalition that touches on the issue of attacks on the electoral system, but along with several other issues related to misinformation and a greater number of targets.

Another broader action, but which focuses only on Bolsonaro and Braga Netto, deals with the so-called “goodness package”, including an increase in the Brazil Aid. In this case, however, there are more requests for the production of evidence.

Electoral lawyer and professor Marilda Silveira states that, even after one of the processes is judged, the other actions do not lose their object. There is no time limit for the trial.

“Although, between quotes, it has no practical effect, all cases will be judged and, if necessary, it will [Bolsonaro] will be convicted or acquitted more than once”, she points out, who signs one of the actions presented by Soraya Thronicke (União Brasil-MS), who is a senator and ran for President.