Bolsonaro’s defense expects Cid’s confession for fraud – 05/04/2023 – Politics

Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) defense in the case of vaccine card fraud relies on the admission of guilt by Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former assistant and right-hand man of the former president.

Allies of the former president believe that Cid will have no choice but to acknowledge having tampered with immunization certificates. At the same time, Bolsonaro’s lawyers are seeking to disassociate him from the episode.

The evaluation of the ex-president’s interlocutors heard by the Sheet is that the investigation by the Federal Police brought robust elements that are difficult for Cid to refute. They cite, for example, message exchanges and access from the military’s own cell phone to the account of the then representative in the ConectaSUS application.

Cid remained silent during his first statement to the police. He was arrested on Wednesday morning (3), at his residence in the Urban Military Sector in Brasília. Because he is a military man, he will be imprisoned in the Army battalion.

In addition to him, two other Bolsonaro assistants were arrested: Max Guilherme de Moura and Sergio Cordeiro. Both remain employed in Bolsonaro’s direct advisory, as a former mandate prerogative.

On behalf of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), the PF points to Mauro Cid as the main articulator of the scheme to defraud Covid-19 vaccination cards, but considers that Bolsonaro was aware.

Lawyer Rodrigo Roca, who defends Cid, said he is studying to file a request for the arrest to be revoked later this week. The defense intends to argue that there is no risk of reiterating the crimes allegedly committed, since he no longer holds the position of assistant to the Presidency.

He must also allege Cid’s unblemished conduct and impeccable career. According to Roca, there will be no confession of crimes because he did not commit the accusations made by the PF.

“The plot suggested by the Federal Police does not hold up in the face of the facts and will collapse with the development of the investigations”, he said.

Bolsonaro allies say that Cid has a close and loyal relationship with Bolsonaro. Therefore, they say they rule out any possibility of denunciation by the military.

Bolsonaro’s surroundings should try to disconnect the former president from any relationship with the case, despite the fact that he was the target of a search and seizure operation at his home.

The first argument used by its defenders is that the then president was not at the Planalto Palace on the days when his vaccine card was accessed in the SUS system through an IP address of the Presidency of the Republic.

Pfizer doses registered as applied in Duque de Caxias (RJ) entered the Ministry of Health system on December 21, 2022. The following day, the first issue of the digital card of the then Chief Executive took place.

On both days, Bolsonaro was at Palácio da Alvorada, according to his official agenda. On December 22, he had a meeting with the then Deputy Chief for Legal Affairs of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Renato de França Lima.

The second issue of his vaccine card took place on the afternoon of December 27, at the same IP in Planalto. Bolsonaro, on that date, had no agenda, and people close to him say he remained at Alvorada.

On the night of that same day, the two doses in Bolsonaro’s user were excluded from the system.

Allies of the former president say that he was not aware of the fraud, access and printing of the vaccine card, despite the evidence pointed out by the PF. Bolsonaro himself stated, on the day of the operation, that he had not been vaccinated.

“I didn’t take the vaccine. I was never asked for a vaccine card [para entrar nos EUA]. There is no tampering on my part. I didn’t get the vaccine, period. I never denied it. There were people who pressured me to take it, naturally. But I didn’t take it, because I read the Pfizer leaflet”, said the former chief executive.

Covid vaccines, like Pfizer’s, are safe and have been proven effective in scientific studies. More than 6 billion doses have been applied worldwide.

Bolsonaro was critical of vaccination against the coronavirus, spread lies on the subject and always said he had not been immunized. In the wake of Wednesday’s operation, he claimed to have reiterated to the police themselves that he had never been vaccinated.

The political argument that Bolsonaro himself would be electorally disadvantaged if he had been immunized, due to his anti-vaccine stance, is also part of the former president’s defense. It would make no sense, according to his allies, for him to defraud the card.

Bolsonaro supporters also say that his position against vaccines is widely known and that any attempt to enter a foreign country with an immunization certificate would, at the very least, generate strangeness among customs authorities.

Another point raised by his allies is that he did not have to present proof of vaccination when he entered the United States, because of the position he held.

This set of arguments leads Bolsonaro’s allies to consider that it is possible to overturn the thesis that he had fraudulently used the certificates and used the documents. One of the hypotheses raised by the defense is that the tampering occurred as a way to please Bolsonaro, without his knowledge.

Bolsonaro’s defense still does not work with a date for the ex-president’s testimony.

The former agent had been summoned to testify on Wednesday itself, when the search and seizure operation took place at his residence. However, the postponement was officially requested, considering the lack of access to the investigation documents.