Bolsonaro’s lawyer criticizes action at the TSE and defends Zanin – 06/16/2023 – Politics

Lawyer Karina Kufa, who acts for Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in about 50 cases, but does not represent him in the action at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that could make him ineligible, says she sees weakness in the accusation against the former president for attack electronic voting machines in a meeting with ambassadors.

Kufa also defended in an interview with Sheet the right of Lula (PT) to nominate his lawyer and friend Cristiano Zanin for the vacancy in the STF (Federal Supreme Court). “There is nothing to stop it. It is the prerogative of the president”, says she, who declares herself on the right.

The lawyer, who also works with Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) and says she has around 40 other federal deputies as clients, gained notoriety in the previous government and was at the forefront of creating the Alliance for Brazil, a party that would shelter Bolsonarism and ended up sinking.

For Kufa, the action against the former president in the TSE lacks sufficient elements to remove him from the elections for eight years. “I do not see in this action solid arguments for ineligibility, especially of a candidate for president”, she says, who speaks of the trivialization of this type of punishment in the country.

The lawyer considers the impeachment of parliamentarians to be problematic because of women’s candidacies, as she understands that many cases have been judged without conclusive evidence.

“It is horrible to launch these candidacies, without a doubt. But, for those who are in the day to day, there is always the doubt of when it is orange and when the candidate has not been prepared. And Justice is accepting presumption of proof. This is very dangerous , because it is based on assumptions”, he says.

“Cassation and ineligibility are very serious things. It cannot be trivialized.”

Bolsonaro is represented in the case at the TSE by Tarcísio Vieira de Carvalho Neto, who was a lawyer for his re-election campaign and is a former minister of the court itself.

Kufa denies the occurrence of abuse of political power in the episode with the ambassadors in 2022. On the occasion, the then president made accusations against the electoral system without presenting evidence. “Believing in the right, the expectation is that he does not have declared ineligibility”, she says.

The lawyer also disputes the inclusion in the process of the coup draft found by the Federal Police in the house of Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice. For her, it is an extrapolation of the timeframe for presenting evidence, without observing the deadline for adding elements.

Kufa also evokes the principle of annuality, according to which changes in legislation must be signed up to one year before the elections, and says that the expansion of the limit to accept new evidence could configure a change of understanding that would be at odds with the rule.

“Following the law, if we wait for a strictly legal trial, he [Bolsonaro] does not become ineligible.”

For the lawyer, the debate on electronic ballot boxes and other voting systems “is totally democratic and legitimate”, but the mistake was “after the system is in place, question it”. She says that the discussion should have taken place in Congress, with specialists, and far from an election year.

“Some politicians were irritated and expressed themselves in an inadequate way. If the statements were all made in the search for alternatives, there would be no problem, but it was extrapolating”, she continues, who sees the responsibility “of all those involved”, including Bolsonaro.

Kufa claims to have already advised the former president to step back and ease the clashes with the Judiciary. She reports having given the same recommendation to then deputy Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ), when she was negotiating to become his defender. Since “he did everything backwards”, she walked away.

The lawyer says she sees Bolsonaro “with a more relaxed profile after the election”, but avoids relating his behavior to the siege he faces, with actions and investigations in different spheres of the Judiciary. “As the electoral climate passes, the most fervent discussions also pass”, she temporizes.

Kufa is also in tune with the client —who limited himself to saying that it is “the president’s private competence”—in his opinion on Zanin’s choice for the STF.

“It’s like this not only in Brazil, but in several countries”, says the lawyer. “From the point of view of the Constitution, I don’t see any problem. It meets the requirements. This does not violate the principle of impersonality, absolutely nothing. If they want to create another format, let the Legislature work on it.”

For her, it is wrong to see the choice as something that “is entirely in the hands of the President of the Republic”, since the candidate faces a sabbatical in the Senate.

Kufa draws a parallel with a situation in 2020, when the name of Jorge Oliveira, a friend of Bolsonaro for decades and then Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, was mentioned to the STF.

She says that at the time it was favorable, for the same reasons as in Zanin’s case. “The questions were about his proximity to the president and the [escassa] academic degree. And that’s not a problem. He didn’t have any obstacles.” The person chosen for the vacancy ended up being Kassio Nunes Marques.

For the lawyer, Zanin’s performance in the STF will go through other control mechanisms in addition to suspicion and impediment, applied when the minister is unable to judge a case. She recalls that monocratic decisions are submitted to the classes or to the plenary of the court.

Kufa says he endorses Lula’s decision out of consistency. “How I defended [no caso] of Jorge, who was a person connected to my client, I make the same defense on the other side. I’m really speaking my mind.”

She criticizes the left, however, for “preaching one thing and doing another” when it comes to gender equality. It is a reference to the choice of a man for the seat on the Supreme Court, which may be repeated in the next nomination that will fall to Lula, when Minister Rosa Weber retires.

The lawyer, who defines herself as a feminist, says that she heard from Bolsonaro himself and close advisors the commitment that he, if re-elected, would choose a woman to replace Rosa. “And many even joked: ‘Ah, in our environment, the one who is most qualified is Karina'”, she says.

She agrees with the pressure from militants to nominate women for the STF and cites the low female presence at the top of the Judiciary bodies. For Kufa, increasing representativeness is also a way to make decision-making more plural.

“It is important that the Supreme Court not only preserve the two current vacancies, but increase the number of women in its composition. The ideal would be to have half, but losing one more vacancy is too sad, it is a setback.”