Ciro Nogueira tells the TSE that he did not know the coup draft – 02/08/2023 – Politics

The senator and former Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI), said this Wednesday (8) in a statement to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that he did not know the coup draft of the state of defense decree found in the residence Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice.

Ciro testified as a witness for the defense of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and former minister Braga Netto (PL) in a court action filed by the PDT that investigates attacks on ballot boxes in speeches to ambassadors. Admiral Flávio Viana Rocha, a former Bolsonaro adviser, was also a witness and repeated that he was unaware of the draft.

Before starting the testimonies, Bolsonaro’s defense tried to postpone the statements of the witnesses, which was denied by the court. The ex-president’s lawyers also asked this Wednesday (8) for the TSE to reschedule the analysis of the decision to keep the analysis of the coup decree within the action.

The court accepted the request and changed the analysis in plenary from Thursday (9) to next Tuesday (14). In this session, the ministers must judge whether or not to endorse the decision of the general electoral inspector, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, to keep the document in the process.

The corregidor denied on Tuesday (7) a request by Bolsonaro’s defense to exclude the analysis of the document.

The testimonies of Ciro and Flávio Rocha were not released by the TSE. People who had access to the speeches say that both said they were unaware of the document. Ciro would also have said that he participated in the meeting with ambassadors as a guest, without having organized the meeting.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers argued that this Wednesday’s depositions should be suspended so that new witnesses could be presented to “counteract” the arguments of Gonçalves’ decision to keep the coup draft in the process.

The PDT lawyer and the representative of the Public Ministry asked the TSE to deny this postponement.

As for asking for the postponement of the TSE plenary session, Bolsonaro’s defense said there was little time to prepare arguments for the ex-president’s lawyers’ speech to the court ministers.

The defense of the former president also argued that part of the lawyers were mobilized for the testimonies of Ciro and Flávio Rocha, in addition to that the legal coordinator of the Bolsonaro campaign, Tarcísio Vieira de Carvalho Neto, could not give oral support in the plenary session because he was in displacement.

In August, the PDT presented an Aije (Electoral Judicial Investigation Action) to the TSE asking that Bolsonaro and Braga Netto become ineligible for the meeting in which the then president attacked the electoral system.

At the meeting held in July, Bolsonaro repeated conspiracy theories about the polls to try to delegitimize the electoral process. He even made coup-like insinuations and attacks on the TSE and the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

In addition to accepting the PDT action, and making Bolsonaro and Braga Netto investigated, the TSE corregidor included the coup draft in the process.

The measurement took place after Sheet reveal, on January 12, that the Federal Police had found the draft of the decree at the residence of Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice. The purpose of the document would be to reverse the result of the election in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) won. Such a measure would be unconstitutional.