CNJ postpones decision on court lobby office – 02/28/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

The national justice inspector, Minister Luis Felipe Salomão, voted this Tuesday (28) for the opening of administrative disciplinary proceedings against Judge Gilson Lemes, former president of the TJ-MG, without removal from office. Request for a view postponed the trial.

Salomão glimpsed a disciplinary infraction in the installation of the TJ de Minas representative office in Brasília. Among the indications, he cited the high values; the installation in the middle of the pandemic, when there was the possibility of remote operation, and the prospect of higher expenses.

The magistrate identifies an affront to the Organic Law of the Judiciary, the Bidding Law and the Code of Ethics of the Judiciary.

When president Rosa Weber was going to collect the votes of the collegiate, the adviser Richard Pae Kim went ahead and asked to see the records.

Judge of the TJ-SP, Kim attended the inauguration ceremony of the TJ-MG office. CNJ counselor Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho, from Minas Gerais, was at the table of honor, as vice-president of the Superior Labor Court.

Lemes’ lawyer, Walter José Faiad de Moura, says that the CNJ became aware of the inauguration “because everyone was invited”. “It was all out in the open,” he said.

It wasn’t like that.

The procedure was opened by Salomão’s predecessor in internal affairs, minister Maria Thereza de Assis Moura. After an inspection in court, which generated the complaint, she praised the management of President José Arthur, who had taken over 22 days earlier.

This Tuesday, councilor Sidney Madruga declared suspicion. He had also praised the court’s new administration at the end of the inspection.

The magistrate did not see any reason for the Minas Gerais court to have its headquarters, “or a spearhead, in the federal capital”, as the defender of Lemes maintained in the session.

“It’s not an administrative advance. On the contrary, it’s an unnecessary expense,” said Salomão.

The office was used by Lemes to make political contacts in the Three Powers and personally lobby for the re-election of President Jair Bolsonaro. The magistrate aspired to be appointed to the STF or STJ.

Lemes’ defense maintained that the CNJ should have instituted an administrative control procedure, since “they are contractual acts” and are imputing “political use, a presumption of bad faith”.

For Faiad de Moura, the disciplinary procedure is “a guillotine, a rope that is stretched”.

court defense

MG State Attorney Vanessa Saraiva de Abreu made oral support on behalf of the TJ-MG.

She said that the presidency of the court exercised private competence, of self-management, after careful analysis, examining the compatibility of prices with market parameters.

The prosecutor stated that the model was inspired by other government bodies in Minas Gerais that have offices in Brasília, including the State Attorney General’s Office.

Vanessa de Abreu is head of the Representative Office of the Attorney General for Mines in Brasilia.

In August 2022, she participated in a meeting at the TJ-MG office in Brasília with the Inspector General of Justice, Judge Luiz Carlos de Azevedo Corrêa Júnior. According to the court, “the meeting was for the exchange of experiences between the two institutions”.

Salomão said that the offices in Brasília of the bodies mentioned by the lawyer “have their motivation, as they accompany the processes in the superior courts”.

“No court has a seat in the federal capital,” said the magistrate.

The corregidor raised doubts about the waiver of bidding for renting the office. “There was no proof of the alleged savings. Apparently, more than R$100,000 was spent on travel,” he said.

The office was closed on the eve of the previous session of the CNJ, when its installation would be judged.

“The eventual closure does not rule out the need for verification,” said Salomão.

He recalled that there is another complaint under analysis. This is the request presented by judge Marco Aurelio Ferenzini, from TJ-MG, who requested the opening of disciplinary proceedings against Lemes and the current president, judge José Arthur.

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