Chicana delayed investigation of judge who questioned ballot boxes – 01/01/2024 – Power

Two cases at the CNJ (National Council of Justice) against federal judge Eduardo Luiz Rocha Cubas, who was compulsorily retired in April, were processed in an awkward manner for five years.

The first originates in 2017. Cubas questioned the security of electronic voting machines, in a recording with federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) before the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

The video was released on YouTube. Cubas was precautionarily removed by the CNJ in 2018. He returned to office in 2019 by decision of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Marco Aurélio Mello.

The myth of the ballot box being vulnerable to fraud helped elect Jair Bolsonaro (PL) president in 2018 and stimulated the climate that led to the coup acts on January 8.

The second process, initiated in 2021, originates from support for the nomination of Abraham Weintraub for a position at the World Bank. Weintraub is Bolsonaro’s former Minister of Education who, at a government meeting, stated: “I would put all these bums in jail, starting with the STF [Supremo Tribunal Federal]”.

Cubas presided over the tiny Unajuf (National Union of Federal Judges of Brazil), in Goiás. The CNJ is still awaiting its preliminary defense.

The investigation at the CNJ went through the administrations of Dias Toffoli, Luiz Fux and Rosa Weber. Continues with Luís Roberto Barroso. There were several rapporteurs.

The judge removed from the robe told the Sheet who is grateful for the CNJ’s decision, as he is now a lawyer. He obtained registration with the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) of the Federal District last September.

Before that, Cubas had other plans: he intended to become a minister of the STF.

In August 2020, he sent a letter to Bolsonaro, as “first interested” in the “vacancy resulting from the upcoming retirement of minister Celso de Mello”. He said he was the minister’s chauffeur and waved “about the possibility of taking the back seat now.”

“Federal judge Eduardo Cubas did not work with me, at the STF, neither as a driver of the official vehicle that served me nor in any other functional capacity”, states the retired dean.

At that time, the then federal judge had a well-known proximity to an issue dear to Bolsonarism.

On September 11, 2018, Cubas went to the Army headquarters, in Brasília, to deliver a popular action letter. His objective was to communicate that he intended to seize electronic voting machines to be inspected by the Army two days before the elections.

Cubas was on vacation. Days later, there was a meeting at the Army Command, which wanted to “better understand the demand”.

It is in the CNJ’s records: “The magistrate attended the meeting, however, instead of taking the decision already given (and public, therefore), he gave the military a draft and induced them to believe that the decision would still be made.”

“He hid from the officers the existence of an injunction that had already been issued, as he wanted to obtain the support of that Force, but he did not want the defendant (Union) to know the content of the act until the eve of the elections.”

Seven Army officers were heard in the disciplinary process.

Rapporteur Mauro Martins said that the judge’s “teratological decision” “contributed to a considerable portion of society becoming suspicious of electronic voting machines.” The counselor linked Cubas’ conduct to the vandalism on January 8th.

“At no point was I there in the Army with the intention of giving a judicial decision, because the decision was already in the records”, stated Cubas during the interrogation.

The reviewer, Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho, criticized the mockery and “the mocking tone”. He cited the various medical certificates “attached on the eve of hearings scheduled weeks in advance.”

In his previous defense, Cubas stated: “This magistrate was right, but the CNJ’s interference in the activities of the Judiciary prevented the regular processing of the case. [processo].”

Cubas bluffed from the first request. The former judge is a poker player in internet tournaments. In 2018, he asked for the postponement of the session that would confirm his preliminary removal. He claimed that he was “bed-ridden and unable to present oral arguments”. He repeated the trick several times.

“I’ve never seen a judge so unbalanced,” said counselor Henrique Ávila.

Cubas stated at the time: “[Eu] I could be represented by a lawyer, but based on the content of this process, I don’t see the slightest need to spend my salary on this process, due to its surreal nature.”

Afterwards, he granted power of attorney to lawyer Eugênio Aragão, former Minister of Justice.

On May 8, 2020, the then rapporteur Luiz Fernando Tomasi Keppen recorded in the records that Aragão had requested, on a personal basis, the postponement of the virtual hearing. He claimed social isolation; His residence did not have the technical conditions for videoconferencing and his office was under renovation. The only lawyer in the case, said that “there would be no urgency in the act”.

Keppen refused. He suggested that he participate in the hearing via cell phone. The act was postponed to ensure broad defense.

On October 19, 2021, Keppen registered the “fourth request for postponement presented, once again, on the eve of the accused’s interrogation, accompanied by a medical certificate.” He rejected the request.

On January 26, 2022, Mauro Martins asked the TRF-1 to confirm whether an examination of the judge had been carried out by a medical board (the court even reported that it was unable to locate the judge). In May, Martins appointed a hearing for Brigadier General Ricardo de Castro Trovizo (a witness required by the prosecution), in addition to Cubas and three court employees.

In the session that punished the judge, Aragão said that there was nothing wrong with Cubas notifying a military authority at HQ. National inspector Luis Felipe Salomão said that “the defense is still trying to color the magistrate’s activity.”

Cubas named Jair Bolsonaro, Dias Toffoli, Humberto Martins, Maria Tereza de Assis Moura, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Abraham Weintraub, Jayme Martins de Oliveira Neto and Candice Lavocat Galvão Jobim as witnesses. The Bolsonaros were rejected, “because they are irrelevant to the analysis of the facts”; Toffoli, Martins and Candice, CNJ counselor, “for being judgmental”.

Candice was vice-president of Ajufe (Association of Federal Judges of Brazil). Cubas intended to demonstrate “the identity of his institutional performance at Unajuf”.

Unajuf was in solidarity with the truck drivers’ strike and awarded a medal to Wilson Witzel for the “defense of human rights”. The former governor of Rio was reported to the UN and the OAS for the record number of deaths in police operations. Cubas defended the presence of General Eduardo Pazuello, former Minister of Health, on a platform next to Bolsonaro – both without anti-Covid masks.

Unajuf was created in 2014, when Cubas lost the election for the presidency of Ajufe.

Salomão said the judge used “a sham association.”

OTHER SIDE

By email, Eduardo Cubas said he is deeply grateful for the CNJ’s decision and “immense respect for the court, as he is now a lawyer.” He stated that “in these processes, nullities are things of the past.”

“The process lasted a reasonable length, as it should have,” he added.

Regarding the support for Abraham Weintraub, the defense stated that “it was clear in the instruction that this was an associative act that had the vote of everyone on the board [da Unajuf]”.

In the records, Cubas said that, once sentenced to compulsory retirement, it would not make sense to continue the disciplinary process to “retire” him.

Eugênio Aragão did not comment on the final reasons.