Aras leaves a “damned legacy” for the PGR and the fight against corruption in Brazil

Augusto Aras will leave command of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) this Tuesday (26), and dedicated his last session at the helm of the institution, last Thursday (21), to defending his “legacy” and saying that criticisms of his management are “false narratives”. However, the legacy built by Aras involves the dismantling of task forces, including those of Lava Jato, and the weakening of the fight against corruption in the country.

“The challenges of the last four years were additionally surrounded by some misunderstandings and false narratives, dissonant with the work carried out, documented and publicized”, he stated.

Appointed twice by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the attorney general stood out for his criticism of Operation Lava Jato and for having actively acted to end it, with the end of the task forces. Fact that occurred in 2021.

Aras’ final move against the operation came on September 16, 2023, when the attorney general announced that he would not appeal the annulment of the evidence obtained in the leniency agreement of the construction company Odebrecht. The decision was taken by Minister Dias Toffoli, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

“I was accused of destroying Lava Jato, when I merely institutionalized and depersonalized the Public Ministry. Today, society sees its true “damned legacy”, its “modus operandi“which takes lives, politics, the economy and insults national sovereignty”, said the PGR in a statement released on September 7, one day after the minister’s decision.

In addition to acting against the operation started in Curitiba, Aras played a fundamental role in the investigations initiated by the STF, such as the “fake news” and the “anti-democratic acts”. And despite having been heavily criticized by PT members at the time it was appointed by Bolsonaro, the PGR fell in favor with the current government supporters for keeping the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) on a “short leash” against possible investigations into important politicians in the National Congress.

Aras supported the investigations into “fake news” and “anti-democratic acts”

Going in the opposite direction to his predecessor, Raquel Dodge, Aras stated in October 2019 that the investigation dealt with “legitimate action by the Supreme Court to investigate allegedly criminal facts capable of harming the functioning of the Court”. At the time, the PGR spoke out after Rede Sustentabilidade filed a lawsuit asking for the suspension of the “fake news” investigation.

He also stated that the investigation was legal, because it is provided for in the STF regulations. Furthermore, according to him, the investigation would not violate the Constitution. But he highlighted that the MPF had to be part of it, aiming for “the fundamental rights and guarantees of those being investigated”. On the other hand, he ruled out the need to cancel the investigations due to the agency’s absence. It is important to highlight that the investigation was carried out for almost a year without the effective participation of the Federal Public Ministry in the investigations.

“The investigation provided for in article 43 of the Internal Regulations of the Federal Supreme Court, therefore, finds support in the separation of Powers. Its scope is limited to defending the autonomous and independent functioning of the highest Court in the country. However, the possibility of establishing atypical form of judicial inquiry by the Federal Supreme Court, in accordance with article 43 of its Internal Regulations, based on the guarantee of independent exercise of the functions of the Judiciary, does not mean that the preliminary procedure can be conducted in non-compliance with the accusatory criminal model” , said Augusto Aras in the document.

In the case of the “anti-democratic acts” investigation, the investigations were led from the beginning by the Attorney General’s Office. In this sense, Aras had a fundamental participation, as he asked for the investigation to be opened after the demonstrations on April 19, 2020. On that day, right-wing deputies and Bolsonaro himself criticized the STF’s actions.

The request was accepted by minister Alexandre de Moraes and the investigations targeted supporters close to the former president. Former federal deputy Daniel Silveira (PL-RJ) later had his mandate revoked due to developments in this investigation. Journalist Allan dos Santos, former owner of the channel Free Tuesday, had to leave the country to avoid being arrested as a result of the process. Another case that gained prominence was the arrest of activist Sara Winter, detained for organizing demonstrations in front of the Supreme Court headquarters.

At the time, Aras even said that the investigation gave “a certain stability to the country at a relevant time”. “Thanks to this inquiry, we carried out, within due legal process, the investigative procedure to understand the dynamics, the purpose of groups or people or even parliamentarians in the sense of that growing extremist activity and the result that we see, extremely importance, there was a cooling of that will [de praticar atos extremistas]”, the prosecutor told journalists.

The prosecutor of the Public Ministry of Paraná (MPPR) Claudia Piovezan, who organized the books “Inquiry into the end of the world – The turning off of the lights of Brazilian Law” It is “You will be like gods: The STF and the subversion of justice”, recalls the responsibility of the PGR in investigations opened by the Supreme Court.

“In fact, Attorney General Augusto Aras endorsed Inquiry 4,781, pointing out only illegalities in the lack of intervention by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. He ignored unconstitutionalities and illegalities that tarnish the procedure ab initio [desde o começo] and which were pointed out exhaustively by several jurists in the book End of the world inquiry and in the other works of the trilogy, You will be like gods and Ssupreme disorder“, said the prosecutor.

On the other hand, she points out that the outcome of the investigations would not be different if Aras were against it. “If his position had been different, it would have been equally disregarded by the rapporteur of the case and by the majority of the Court. As happened with the two archivings promoted by the previous PGR, Raquel Dodge, and has happened with the defenses of those investigated”, added Claudia.

The dismantling of Lava Jato

Since taking office, the prosecutor has worked to create interference within Operation Lava Jato via the PGR. In June 2020, deputy prosecutor Lindôra Araújo was in Curitiba and tried to access the Lava Jato database – which caused surprise among the prosecutors from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) of Paraná.

The PGR claims that it sent a letter to the task force in May of that year, asking for access to information, but received no response. The request would be based on court decisions, but Lava Jato disagrees with this interpretation. The case ended up with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, which opened a procedure to investigate the deputy prosecutor’s conduct.

Despite the refusal, Aras obtained a monocratic decision from Toffoli obliging the Lava Jato task forces in Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to share their databases with the Attorney General’s Office – including confidential information.

Political action against Lava Jato

Preparing the ground for the closure of the Operation, Aras also met with anti-Lava Jato lawyers to criticize the work carried out. He participated in a live with the group Prerrogativas – made up of lawyers who support Lula and the PT – in 2020. The Attorney General of the Republic criticized the fact that Lava Jato has more data than the entire unified MP system.

“Not that the Attorney General of the Republic is the owner of the fate of 38 thousand people, but that every MP can, in a well-founded and duly instructed manner, justify why he wants to know about other people’s lives. So that it does not serve as gossip, blackmail, distortion or any anti-republican purpose”, he criticized.

He also defended the need to “correct course” so that “lavajatism does not last”. “Contrary to this, what we have here at home is the idea of ​​seeking to strengthen scientific research and, above all, aiming to respect fundamental rights and guarantees,” he said.

Still in 2020, Aras even extended the task force until January 2021. But unlike other times, the PGR did not assign prosecutors to Curitiba. In practice, this meant that investigators who were on loan to the task force had to return to live in the cities where they were stationed — otherwise they could be punished.

A second renewal of Lava Jato was scheduled for October 2021, but in February of the same year, the MPF announced the closure of the operation in Paraná, attaching the investigations to the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco) of the MPF from Paraná. Despite nominally being in operation, the working group does not have the same investigative structure as the early years of Lava Jato.

Other anti-corruption task forces were also closed under Aras’s management. This is the case of Operation Greenfield, which investigated fraud in state-owned pension funds and which, when completed, had only completed 45% of its goals.

Persecution against Lava Jato prosecutors

In the same month that he ended the operation, Aras sent a request for an investigation against prosecutors from the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba to the Internal Affairs Division of the National Council of the Public Ministry (CNMP). The request had been made by the then president of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), minister Humberto Martins.

The investigation resulted from the exchange of messages between prosecutors leaked by hackers. In the content of the messages, attorney Deltan Dallagnol allegedly suggested asking the Federal Revenue Service for an asset analysis of the STJ ministers. In response, the former members of the task force denied “any act of investigation into the conduct of authorities holding jurisdiction by function prerogative”.

Aras tried to be reappointed again to the position

Currently, the intensification of Aras’ criticism against the operation occurs at the same time that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) evaluates the candidates for command of the PGR. Behind the scenes, the current attorney general rehearsed a campaign to be reappointed by Lula, including the support of associations linked to the Federal Public Ministry.

In August, advisors from the National Council of the Public Ministry expressed unrestricted support for Aras. According to the document, he “has always guided his actions by constitutional parameters, moving away from partisan or political pressures and guiding his work by the conception that the legal field should not intervene in the political sphere, except when absolutely necessary”.

The move, however, had no effect and Lula appears to be inclined to choose deputy electoral attorney general Paulo Gonet to command the PGR. The magistrate of the Public Electoral Ministry is linked to minister Gilmar Mendes and minister Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

STF and PT compete for seat left by Aras

Aras’ term comes to an end this Tuesday (26), but Lula has not yet decided which name he will choose to command the MPF. During an interview at Palácio Itamaraty, this Monday (25), the PT member stated that he is in “no rush” to appoint a nominee. He also stated that gender and skin color will not be criteria for choice, a stance that displeases the PT base.

“When I have to make the decision, you can rest assured that I will announce to you: ‘I chose the right person to put in that place’. But I’m not in a hurry,” said Lula. And she added: “The criteria will no longer be this [gênero]. I’m very calm, that’s why I’m saying that I will choose a person who can meet Brazil’s interests and expectations. A person who can serve Brazil. A person who has respect for Brazilian society. A person who has respect, but not fear of the press. A person who votes properly without voting for the press,” she said.

Behind the scenes, STF ministers and the PT are fighting to convince Lula about the best nominee. As mentioned, on the magistrates side, electoral attorney general Paulo Gonet stands out in preference for being linked to Mendes and Moraes.

On the PT side, deputy attorney Antonio Carlos Bigonha is defended as someone the party trusts. He is close to important names in the acronym, such as former Minister of the Civil House José Dirceu.