CNJ retires judge who questioned the credibility of the polls – 04/26/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

The National Council of Justice unanimously decided this Tuesday (25) to compulsorily retire federal judge Eduardo Cubas for party-political action by questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines and intending to disrupt the 2018 elections.

Alongside federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSC-SP), the judge recorded a video in front of the Superior Electoral Court in which he raised suspicions about electronic ballot boxes and defended separate and independent candidacies.

The reporting counselor, Mauro Martins, criticized the magistrate’s “teratological decision”, which “contributed to a considerable portion of society becoming distrustful of electronic ballot boxes”.

Martins linked Cubas’ conduct to the atmosphere that resulted in the acts of January 8, when groups of Bolsonarists invaded the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília.

Martins was accompanied by the collegiate. Several counselors registered “perplexity” with the judge’s performance.

In his opinion, the rapporteur emphasized the magistrate’s personal interest in carrying a supposed draft of military authority during an event. Judge Cubas wanted the Army to audit the ballot boxes.

At the time, the Attorney General’s Office considered that Cubas “acted with partiality, when he personally addressed the Army Command, to anticipate the content of the decision to be handed down”.

According to Martins, “another fact that generates perplexity was the meeting [do juiz] in the Army, without the presence of the opposing parties”.

“The fact of being leader of association [Unajuf] does not bring a shield, a mantle, for party-political manifestation”, said the rapporteur.

“The Army did not follow up on the decision,” he said. Martins pointed out that the TSE had already confirmed the reliability of the ballot boxes.

Single vote, says Weber

“With great sadness I follow the rapporteur’s impeccable vote in full”, said the president of the CNJ, Minister Rosa Weber. “This type of conduct is incompatible with the exercise of jurisdictional activity”.

“Without impartial, sober and serene judges, we cannot sustain the democratic rule of law”, stated Weber.

She said the “magistrate had an excellent defense”. The oral support was made by former Minister of Justice Eugênio Aragão, who praised the Electoral Justice and recalled having expressed solidarity with Minister Rosa Weber for the attacks suffered.

Aragão said that he would not go into the merits “whether the expertise” proposed by Cubas would fit.

He maintained that “there was nothing wrong” with Cubas personally going to notify a military official during an event at Headquarters. He said that “it was a symbolic gesture” and that the judge “was received in a formal way”, as the leader of a class association.

He said that it was up to him to “defend the practice of jurisdictional acts, no matter how controversial the circumstances”.

The national justice inspector, Minister Luis Felipe Salomão, said that “the defense is still trying to color the magistrate’s activity” and questioned “why it took us so long to judge this case”.

Salomão criticized the “sad episode” in which the judge “used a false association”. “It is one more of those attitudes of how the magistrate should not act”.

Counselor Salise Sanchotene said that “it is sad to see the federal judge in a partisan political role”. She stated that Unajuf, which was chaired by Cubas, “does not represent federal judges.”

previous removal

In October 2018, the then national justice inspector Humberto Martins complied with the AGU’s request and ordered the immediate precautionary removal of Judge Cubas, accused of partisan activity “which could bring great turmoil to the elections”.

In 2019, retired STF minister Marco Aurélio granted an injunction in a writ of mandamus and determined the return of Eduardo Cubas to activities in the judicial subsection of Formosa (GO).

At the time of the facts, the Attorney General’s Office had envisaged “a situation that could bring great turmoil to the 2018 elections, in view of the search and seizure of electronic ballot boxes in polling stations, under the terms of the alleged judicial decision, with clear reflections on the credibility of the electronic system of voting and verification of the forthcoming election”.

The AGU attributed to the judge disloyal conduct and, among others, the following practices:

– allowed processing of popular action in a clearly incompetent forum;

– acted with partiality, when going personally to the Army Command, to anticipate the content of the decision to be handed down;

– he used his position as a magistrate to achieve political objectives tending, as it seems, to adopt measures that could make the holding of elections next October unfeasible;

– due to ideological bias, it sought to discredit the vote;

– granted judicial secrecy to the process, without legal grounds for doing so;

– manifested itself in a video posted on the World Wide Web, with party-political content.

The complaint was signed at the time by the Attorney General of the Union, Grace Maria Fernandes Mendonça, the deputy of the AGU Júlio de Melo Ribeiro and the General Consultant of the Union, Marcelo Augusto Carmo de Vasconcellos.