Judge Gabriela Hardt remains on the Lava Jato Court – 06/14/2023 – Power

Substitute federal judge Gabriela Hardt was unable to be removed to a court in Florianópolis (SC). She works in the 13th Court of Curitiba, where the remaining processes of Operation Lava Jato are housed, and had signed up in May for a removal contest, which is organized by the Board of Directors of TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) .

Hardt has replaced the titular judge of the 13th Court of Curitiba, Eduardo Appio, since May 22, after his temporary removal, under suspicion of having committed disciplinary infractions.

The denial to Gabriela Hardt occurred, according to the TRF-4, because other judges had priority, depending on the criterion of seniority.

In the Federal Court responsible for Lava Jato, the judge is a substitute, a term that refers not to the condition of alternate or “reserve”, but to the internship in the career of a magistrate. The cases of the operation were under the responsibility of Appio, who is a titular judge.

Hardt acts in the operation’s processes in situations of vacation or absence. She even conducted Lava Jato cases temporarily between 2018 and 2019, after Sergio Moro left the judiciary, and proved to be aligned with the theses of the current senator.

The judge, for example, issued the sentence that condemned Lula to prison in the criminal action at the Atibaia site (SP), in a measure that two years later was annulled by the STF (Federal Supreme Court).