Bolsonaro and TSE minister had secret meeting before trial, messages show

Judgment

Assessor cites the name of Carlos Horbach; days later, the electoral court dismissed the case of the mass shooting of WhatsApp

Brasilia DF) – The breach of secrecy of advisors to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) shows an exchange of messages in which a secret meeting at the Palácio da Alvorada between the then president and the Minister of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) Carlos Horbach is mentioned.

According to the dialogue, this meeting would have taken place on the morning of October 16, 2021, a Saturday. There is no record of this meeting on Bolsonaro’s official agenda.

“We need to make it operational to look for the TSE minister wherever he is and bring him without showing up”, writes, on the eve of the meeting, Célio Faria, then head of Bolsonaro’s personal cabinet and who would become minister of the Government Secretariat in 2022.

The message is sent to Mauro Cid, then Bolsonaro’s assistant, who had his bank, tax and telematic secrecy broken by order of Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

Earlier that day, Célio Faria had written to Cid to talk about the meeting. “The boss needs to talk to someone this weekend. I need to know the time and the person asked for a car to pick him up.”

In the two subsequent messages, Faria says that the meeting would take place in Alvorada and writes the name of Minister Carlos Horbach.

At 9:12 am the following day, Saturday, Mauro Cid sends Célio a message with the words: “Min TSE with Pr”. Pr is the acronym for “President of the Republic”, used by both.

Sought through the advisory, Horbach and Bolsonaro did not manifest themselves. The defense and Mauro Cid said he will manifest himself in the case file. Folha was unable to speak with Célio Faria.

Horbach’s term at the TSE ends this Thursday (18th), and he recently reported having given up his reappointment.

As Horbach had positioned himself in favor of Bolsonaro and his allies in important judgments, his permanence —which ultimately depends on an indication from the Planalto— was already considered unlikely before his formal withdrawal.

One of the trials that the minister positioned himself in favor of the former president took place on October 28, 2021, 12 days after the supposed meeting at Alvorada.

On that day, the TSE decided to reject the impeachment of Bolsonaro and his deputy, Hamilton Mourão, for participating in a mass shooting scheme of fake news in the 2018 elections.

The majority of the electoral court concluded that the existence of an illicit scheme for the propagation of false news via WhatsApp in 2018 to benefit Bolsonaro was proven, but considered that it was not sufficiently serious to revoke the winning ticket.

Unlike the majority, Horbach and Sérgio Banhos understood that no elements were presented that would allow reaching the conclusion that there was some kind of dissemination of fake news for the benefit of the former president.

In this judgment, the TSE also established a thesis to guide the Electoral Justice in judgments about fake news dissemination schemes via messaging applications.

The guideline establishes that it is possible to classify this type of scheme as an abuse of political power and also as an improper use of the means of communication that could lead to the impeachment of the mandate.

At that point, only Horbach diverged. He stated that he does not agree with the idea of ​​considering abuse in messaging applications as misuse of the means of communication.

*With information from Folha de S.Paulo

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