CPMI rapporteur ends work with message for the STF

Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), rapporteur of the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPMI) on January 8, will present her extensive opinion this Tuesday morning (17). The expectation is that the government majority of deputies and senators will approve the text on Wednesday, after the deadline for requests for review has been met. In her reading, Eliziane will defend the government’s thesis that the acts of vandalism were part of an alleged coup attempt led by Jair Bolsonaro (PL), with the support of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid and other military personnel close to him.

Despite not having been able to gather solid evidence to support this narrative, the rapporteur will probably request their indictment, as well as those who are already under judicial investigation for inciting and financing the episodes.

After expressing dissatisfaction with the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to allow the silence of witnesses and even to suspend testimonies, she will basically return to the Judiciary the task of confirming the coup plot with the aim of destabilizing the country and removing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) from power.

On the opposition side, at least two parallel reports will be offered for consideration by the collegiate, both with the same focus on the omission of federal security authorities. The first opinion filed, by senator Izalci Lucas (PSDB-DF), and the second, prepared by deputies Delegado Ramagem (PL-RJ) and Felipe Barros (PL-PR), in addition to senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC), point out facilitations that led to the invasions of palaces committed by two ministers of the Lula government: Flávio Dino (Justice) and Marco Gonçalves Dias (Institutional Security). As the documents are extensive, 400 (Ramagem), a thousand (Eliziane) and 2.6 thousand (Izalci) pages, it is expected that only the official report will be read and the three will be available electronically.

Created by the opposition, but controlled by the government, the CPMI ends its activities this week without being able to force the opening of new lines of investigation, both in the thesis of coup orchestration and in the omission of public agents.

Both sides that dueled for four months complain of internal impasses or with the Judiciary to collect reports considered essential to prove what each one defends. Formally installed on May 25, the commission approved more than 180 requests, some of them due to the government’s “nap” or after long and exhausting behind-the-scenes negotiations with the opposition.

The most anticipated testimony by the opposition was left out of the CPMI

Since May, 20 of the 47 authorized depositions have been carried out, including deponents from the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF), authorities linked to the Bolsonaro government and people investigated by the Federal Police (PF) in recent months.

The opposition’s biggest effort in the final stretch was, at least, listening to the commander of the National Force on the day of the violent acts, Colonel Sandro Augusto Sales Queiroz. On the government side, an attempt was made to listen to General Braga Netto, former minister of the Civil House and candidate for vice president on Bolsonaro’s ticket. The impasse, which was unsuccessfully mediated by the president of the commission, deputy Arthur Maia (União Brasil-BA), ended up leading to the CPMI outcome being forwarded more than a month before the deadline.

The STF authorized those summoned to be absent from the hearing at the CPMI, such as the cases of former director of Intelligence at the Ministry of Justice Marília Alencar and Army second lieutenant Osmar Crivelatti, Bolsonaro’s advisor. The Court also authorized witnesses to remain silent, but to appear before the commission, as was the case with Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid and the former Minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI), General Augusto Heleno.

For the rapporteur, all these Supreme Court decisions harmed the investigations. Without being explicit, she also complains that STF investigations are not shared with the collegiate because they are in the due diligence phase, as they are decisions that “do not even bother”.

Eliziane Gama bet all her chips on the entirety of Mauro Cid’s plea bargain to include it in the final report. She, however, is taking advantage of leaked excerpts published by the press, in addition to “confidential information” that reached the CPMI about the lieutenant colonel’s role in relation to the January 8 episodes. “This is rich information for our opinion, which is well consolidated,” she said.

According to the senator, there is an expectation that the investigations “will not be closed”, hoping for developments in her opinion of “robust subsidies” in the Federal Public Ministry and in the investigations chaired by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF.

Izalci’s parallel report lists crimes by Flávio Dino and Gonçalves Dias

The document filed by Izalci Lucas shows that the omission or negligence exclusively attributed to the Federal District government requires investigation in light of a series of evidence. His opinion points to the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, as omitted in the face of dozens of warnings about the events of January 8th. The suspicion took on a more serious tone due to the failure to make internal security images of the Palace of Justice available to the commission and other coordinated actions to avoid exposing embarrassing facts.

Therefore, Lucas asks the Federal Public Ministry to investigate a series of crimes committed by the minister, such as malfeasance and obstruction of justice due to procedural fraud, in addition to disobedience, criminal liability and administrative improbity. Against Gonçalves Dias, he lists the crimes of false testimony, falsification of public documents, obstruction of justice due to procedural fraud and obstruction of justice due to personal favor.

Furthermore, Izalci suggests in his “separate vote” changes to the Senate’s internal regulations to improve the work of the commissions of inquiry in Congress. One of the points that bothered him was the rapporteur’s behavior, with evidence of having arranged questions and answers with the deponent Gonçalves Dias, without there being any instruments to punish her. “The government majority took over the CPMI, preventing the progress of the investigations. The rapporteur, in turn, had a specially designated mission”, said the senator.

After 957 documents were obtained, oppositionists regret that the failure of the National Force to protect the buildings was not better documented and explain the supposed inaction of the federal government during the acts. During the investigation, more than 180 summons requests were presented. In the end, only 18 people spoke to the members of the commission, as two deponents obtained from the STF the right not to attend and did not even go to the commission.