Devassa de Moraes around Bolsonaro causes doubts – 05/16/2023 – Politics

The exposition of details of the routine of the office of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) based on a series of breaches of secrecy determined by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), raises doubts about the legality of the measure.

Criminal experts heard by Sheet claim that, as it is an exceptional investigative measure, it is only adopted based on concrete evidence of its need and in proportion to what is being investigated.

An orderly break in 2021 allowed the Federal Police to access the cloud in which all the conversations of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, the former president’s assistant, were stored. The messages to which the Sheet had access in part, show details of the Presidency’s routine and dialogues between advisors addressing different internal matters.

The investigation originated in the case of the leak of the inquiry into the hacker attack on the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), used by Bolsonaro to attack the security of electronic voting machines.

With the breach of telematic secrecy by Mauro Cid, the delegate Fabio Shor, responsible for the case, asked for a series of new breaches of secrecy based on the material found.

Vinicius de Souza Assumpção, second vice-president of IBCCrim, states that in the case of accessing data stored on physical or virtual devices, it is necessary to follow the parameters provided for by the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, for the protection of privacy, and other laws, under the risk of invalidating the investigation.

“Eventual excesses, such as the breach of secrecy of data that are not supported by the court decision, may constitute illegality, giving rise to the worthlessness not only of what was collected, but of everything that derives from this element illegally found”.

For the criminal lawyer Marina Coelho, adviser to Iasp (Institute of Lawyers of São Paulo), the breach of secrecy is lawful if there is proportionality in what is accessed.

“The breach of secrecy is not to snoop on the other. It is determined for an investigation that has a clear, determined and objective object. take effect,” he says.

The same reading is made by the professor of criminal procedural law at PUC-SP Claudio Langroiva, who classifies access to unrelated information as improper and abusive.

“As this is leaked and publication is allowed, we have an offense that needs to be investigated, because this has already been done in the past, within the scope of Lava Jato, and it was an extremely sad and shameful situation on the part of the Judiciary and this is coming back happening on the other side, which is also inadmissible”, he says.

Retired federal judge of the TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region), criminal lawyer Cecília Mello says that non-compliance with rules exposes the investigation.

“Walking in a repetition of car wash practices is to expose to failure the verification of facts that, yes, can be serious, but should not be confused with political positions and interests. In the Lava Jato episode, the STF acted as guardian of the criminal process constitutional. And now, who will be the guardian?”, he says.

Professor of law and criminal procedure at Insper, lawyer Tatiana Stoco says that, after the Bolsonaro government, in which Augusto Aras (PRG) showed leniency in relation to government acts, the legal community has questioned “whether the ends justify the means “.

“This way of acting by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, granting measures even contrary to the decision of the PGR, causes us some discomfort in the sense that the Brazilian system does not allow the magistrate to act in the search for evidence. It is an ex officio act, even than in the research phase.”

Stoco, however, claims that it is premature to conclude that secrecy encompassed much more than was necessary without having access to the process.

For criminal lawyer Celso Villardi, professor at FGV, what is questionable in the case is the competence of the Supreme Court to investigate Mauro Cid, as court decisions indicate that investigations about people without jurisdiction due to prerogative of function should be sent to the first instance.

Questions in this regard can be presented by Mauro Cid’s defense or by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office).

As shown to Sheetbetween February and December 2022, under the Bolsonaro government, the PGR asked at least six times for the investigation to be closed on the grounds that the evidence was unconstitutional.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the decisions that authorized breaches of banking, tax and telematic secrecy by Mauro Cid and other presidential advisors violated the procedural system, as the Public Ministry was not heard.

Throughout 2022, under the Bolsonaro administration, the PGR was against breaches of secrecy and asked that all material found be annulled.

With the arrival of Lula to the Presidency, the PGR stopped contesting the decisions and, in April, it was favorable to the use of the evidence —previously classified as null and illicit— to carry out searches and arrests in the case of the alleged fraud in vaccination cards.