Lava Jato Judge must change courts – 10/18/2023 – Power

Judge Eduardo Appio, removed from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba in May, must take over another court in the Federal Court, after an agreement defined in a hearing this Wednesday (18), at the CNJ (National Council of Justice), in Brasília. The Curitiba Court is known for housing Lava Jato cases and is responsible for the remaining processes of the operation that targeted Petrobras.

Appio was on leave following a disciplinary process opened against him at the TRF-4 Internal Affairs Office (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region), the second instance of the Federal Court.

The decision now regarding the fate of the judge – possibly a court in the social security area – came from a mediation hearing held in the early evening of this Wednesday between judge Appio and representatives of the TRF-4. With the agreement, the disciplinary process should not result in punishment.

The hearing was proposed and conducted by the national inspector of justice, Luis Felipe Salomão, as part of a request for action presented by Appio’s defense.

The president of TRF-4, Fernando Quadros da Silva, and the court’s regional inspector based in Porto Alegre, Vânia Hack de Almeida, were present at the meeting, which lasted more than two hours.

Openly critical of the methods of Lava Jato launched in 2014, Appio assumed the title of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba in February this year.

In just over a hundred days, Appio signed controversial decisions, such as the arrest of money changer Alberto Youssef, who has a plea bargain agreement in force, and the annulment of the 2017 conviction of former governor of Rio de Janeiro Sergio Cabral. The orders were subsequently overturned by higher courts.

To justify some of his decisions, he pointed out the partiality of former judge Sergio Moro and judge Gabriela Hardt.

In May, the TRF-4 Special Administrative Court opened preliminary proceedings against him and temporarily removed him from his duties at the court. In July, this procedure generated a disciplinary process, initiated by order of the same collegiate, and conducted by the internal affairs department of the regional court.

In September, the national inspector of justice decided to refer the disciplinary process to the CNJ. In the decision, however, Salomão maintained the judge’s provisional removal.

Appio became the target of disciplinary proceedings because he is suspected of having made a call to lawyer João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli in April, pretending to be someone else, and apparently trying to prove that he was speaking to the son of federal judge Marcelo Malucelli, then Lava rapporteur Jet in second instance.

João Eduardo is a partner of current senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) in a law firm and, at the time of the phone call, Marcelo Malucelli and Appio had conflicting legal decisions.

The lawyer recorded the call, and a PF report commissioned by the TRF-4 internal affairs department points out that the audio “strongly corroborates the hypothesis” that it is Appio’s voice. The judge did not admit having made the call, which was interpreted by the lawyer as some kind of threat.

The report found that, during this Wednesday’s hearing, Appio admitted improper conduct, but did not confirm having made the phone call that led to the disciplinary process.

The CNJ and TRF-4 will not comment on the matter.

Judge Fábio Nunes de Martino is currently temporarily working at the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba. But the series of decisions involving Appio’s actions still interfere with the conduct of Lava Jato processes.

At the beginning of last month, when Appio was already away, the 8th Panel of the TRF-4 also declared the judge’s suspicion in the Lava Jato cases, annulling all of the judge’s decisions during the period in which he was in charge of the 13th Federal Court.

However, the suspicion was overturned by the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) Dias Toffoli, still in September.

The members of the 8th Panel of the TRF-4 had judged 28 exceptions of suspicion pointed out by the Federal Public Ministry, and in which they sought to show Appio’s support for PT members. The MPF pointed out, for example, that, until the beginning of the year, the judge used the login “LUL22” to access the Federal Justice electronic system.

Furthermore, the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba and also the 8th Panel of the TRF-4 were recently the targets of an extraordinary correction determined by the national inspectorate of Justice with the aim of carrying out a kind of sweep over everything that was signed within the scope of Lava Jet.

Senator Moro and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol criticized Eduardo Appio this Wednesday. Moro said that the magistrate “admitted to being an unfit judge” and that this “is a start.”

“It remains to be seen whether the CNJ, which was lenient with judge LUL22, will punish the other judges who did an excellent job in Lava Jato,” wrote Deltan, on social media.