Bolsonaro appeals to remove Moraes from the investigation into alleged coup attempt

The defense of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) presented this Monday (26) a new appeal to try to remove Federal Supreme Court (STF) minister Alexandre de Moraes from the rapporteur of the investigation investigating an alleged coup attempt. In the document, the lawyers argue that the minister “assumed, at the same time, the role of victim and judge.”

The procedural appeal was forwarded to the President of the Court, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso. Last week, Barroso rejected a previous request from Bolsonaro’s defense to remove Moraes from the case. The president of the STF considered that “there was no clear demonstration of any of the reasons justifying impediment, provided for, exhaustively, in the governing legislation”.

According to the lawyers, “the narrative created by the minister himself makes clear his involvement in the procedural relationship as he felt that the actions allegedly perpetrated by those under investigation were aimed at him.” The new appeal asks Barroso to reconsider last week’s decision or forward the request for removal to the Court’s plenary for analysis, reported the Estadão.

At the beginning of February, the Federal Police launched Operation Tempus Veritatis to investigate the preparation of a coup d’état in 2022 with the aim of keeping Bolsonaro in power after his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the electoral dispute. The former president was the target of the operation and had his passport confiscated. He denies having participated in an attempted coup d’état and classified the investigation as “persecution”.

According to the investigation, Moraes would have been monitored at the end of December 2022 by a reserve colonel who advised the former president. In the decision that authorized the PF operation, Moraes pointed out that he and other authorities were monitored for the purposes of “capture and detention, in the first hours following the signing of the coup d’état decree”.

The former president’s defense again requested that the STF annul the rapporteur’s determinations within the scope of the investigation. A People’s Gazette questioned Bolsonaro’s defense regarding the new appeal against Moraes’ report, but until the publication of this content there was no response. The space remains open for demonstrations.