Judges follow rapporteur and Moro is one vote away from acquittal in Paraná

After three sessions in Curitiba, the trial of senator Sergio Moro (União-PR) will be concluded this Tuesday (9) at the Regional Electoral Court of Paraná (TRE-PR), where the The score for the acquittal of the former Lava Jato judge is 3 to 1 in the action on suspicion of abuse of economic power in the 2022 elections. Three judges are expected to vote this Tuesday, including the president of the Court, Sigurd Roberto Bengtsson, who said that he will comment on the case even if the result is defined .

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In this Monday’s session (8), judges Guilherme Hernandes Denz and Claudia Cristina Cristofani followed the understanding presented last week by rapporteur Luciano Carrasco Falavinha de Souza and voted against the impeachment of Sergio Moro for abuse of economic power in the election in which the candidate won the race for the Senate at the polls with 1.9 million votes in Paraná.

The “downgrade”, a thesis authored by the PL and the Federation led by the PT that defends the sum of the expenses of Moro’s pre-presidential campaign for Podemos and his campaign as a senator in Paraná for União Brasil, was rejected by the judges. You electoral judges required the parties to provide evidence in the files to compare spending with other pre-candidates of the election in the state. Thus, according to them, it would be possible to analyze whether there was alleged abuse of spending in Moro’s pre-campaign, which caused an imbalance in the electoral race with the other candidates.

The first to vote was Claudia Cristofani, a judge who requested a review of the action during the trial last Wednesday (3) after José Rodrigo Sade’s dissenting vote, on the grounds that he needed to study the different positions presented in the Court. She recalled that unlike the campaign period, the legislation does not require pre-campaign accountability. In other words, in her assessment, the unified action of PL and PT requires comparisons of Moro’s pre-campaign expenses for União Brasil with the expenses of the acronyms competing for the Senate.

“Therefore, the evidence should be presented in the present case, even if in the form of an expert opinion”, he suggests. “The pre-candidate can spend, he just cannot spend above the average of the others so as not to unbalance the election, taking away the chance of those less well off, which makes it absolutely necessary to examine how much the others spent”, he adds.

Cristofani argues that without a comparison of pre-campaign expenses it is impossible to know whether the elected senator’s expenses “constitute an outlier” and to speak of “disproportionality” of the candidacy in relation to the other candidates in the election. She highlighted that “no greatness alone” reflects whether there is abuse of economic power in the pre-campaign, especially when “expenditures from different protagonists” are mixed with different “purposes, expanding numerical magnitude”.

The judge clarified that the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) guarantees “freedom to spend in the pre-campaign”, a phase destined for “debate of ideas and analysis of biographies” to exercise freedom of expression with resources allocated by the parties for this phase that precedes the official campaign.

“Are you sure that the parties want to come here to the Electoral Court to submit all the pre-campaign expenses of the party, the directory and others incurred? This even goes against party autonomy”

Judge Claudia Cristina Cristofani

After Cristofani’s vote, judge Julio Jacob Junior asked for a review and will be the first to vote this Tuesday (9). Afterwards, electoral judge Anderson Fogaça must pronounce and the trial must end with Bengtsson’s vote. The president of TRE-PR understands the need to demonstrate to avoid the annulment of the Court’s decision as this is a case of risk of loss of mandate.

Judge questions “mere presumptions” in vote against Moro’s impeachment

Despite Jacob Junior’s request for a review, electoral judge Guilherme Denz requested the advance of his vote and stated that there is no information in the case records about the amounts spent by Moro’s competitors in the Senate election in the pre-campaign period.

According to Denz, the current senator had total campaign expenses of R$5.1 million, with the Pre-campaign expenses amounted to R$714,000, considered “typically electoral”. Still according to the judge’s vote, the total expenses recorded by second place, Paulo Martins (PL-PR), was R$ R$3.66 million and, by the third competitor, Alvaro Dias (Podemos-PR), was R$5.039 million. The spending limit for candidates for the position of senator in the 2022 elections in Paraná was R$4.44 million.

“It appears that the pre-campaign expenses of the person being investigated reach the percentage of approximately 14% of the expenses actually contracted and carried out during the period of his own campaign. In relation to second place, pre-campaign expenses represent 19.5% and, for third place, 14.17%. In relation to the spending limit for the Senate position in Paraná, the percentage reaches 16.06%”, compares the electoral judge.

In Denz’s analysis, the financial amount spent on the pre-campaign by Moro and his substitutes does not show “extrapolation beyond the reasonable limit” and revocation of mandate must only be adopted “based on irrefutable evidence”. Otherwise, the results of the polls must be respected. “It is necessary to emphasize again that the recognition of the electoral offense of abuse of economic power, to result in the revocation of the mandate, must have its contours well defined in the records and backed by suitable and concrete evidence, and not on mere presumptions” , declares the judge in his vote.

Denz also refuted the parallel between Moro and the impeached former senator Selma Arruda, in 2019, when she lost her mandate following a TSE conviction for pre-campaign spending. “In those records, the payment of expenses made outside of the campaign’s accounting was clear, qualifying the act as ‘slush fund’. It is impossible to compare the seriousness of the acts committed in those cases with the present case.”

The senator’s lawyer, Gustavo Guedes also stated that, in addition to there being no legislation on the pre-campaign period, the judges’ votes clarify that the Selma Arruda case cannot be used as a precedent in Moro’s trial. “Especially that there was no type of illegality in the election from the point of view of slush funds, of triangulation of resources. It’s very clear that there isn’t. Even in the dissenting vote this was ruled out. An attempt is made to create a thesis of pre-campaign abuse that finds no support in any other process or in legislation.”

PT lawyer awaits end of Moro trial in Paraná to analyze appeal

Lawyer for the PT-PV-PCdoB Federation, Eduardo Peccinin refuted the votes of the judges who demanded that the parties responsible for the action need to be compared with the pre-election expenses of Moro’s competitors in Paraná. “Since Ficha Limpa does not need to make any type of comparison. If the understanding prevails, it will be very difficult to monitor the elections because before asking for someone’s impeachment, you need to prove that no one else abuses or breaks the laws”, he contests.

Peccinin stated that he is awaiting the conclusion of the Moro trial in Paraná to evaluate the judges’ votes to appeal to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), in case of acquittal of the senator in Paraná. Whatever the result, Moro’s action must “go up” to the TSE for judgment in Brasília, just as occurred in the process of rejecting the candidacy registration of former deputy and former Lava Jato prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol. Moro’s case is expected to reach the TSE in May, according to the prediction of the president of TRE-PR.

“We will analyze the content of this decision and, obviously, all the votes that were given to evaluate how we will make the challenge, if it is unfavorable. It’s not over yet, there are still three votes. But from what we observed, both we and the other party will seek a reform of the TSE’s decision”, says the PT lawyer.

PL lawyer Guilherme Ruiz Neto declared that the proposed action reveals society’s demand for the need to regulate pre-campaign elections. “The period has only one article in the Electoral Code, just one legal provision. These actions will require the Legislature, together with society, to discuss the issue of pre-campaign, which is just a footnote in electoral legislation. To combat the abuse of economic power, it is necessary to change the current electoral system,” he states.