Retired Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Marco Aurélio Mello.| Photo: Fellipe Sampaio/SCO/STF.

Retired Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Marco Aurélio Mello said this Wednesday (17) that he was “perplexed” by the decision of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to revoke the mandate of federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) . For the former minister, the understanding of the Electoral Court when judging the case “was an interpretation outside the legal order”.

Marco Aurélio criticized the TSE’s decision, in an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, and pointed out that “they buried Lava Jato and now they are wanting to bury those who were protagonists” in the operation. Dallagnol was the head of the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba. “I was perplexed because I found out today watching the news that there weren’t even PAD,” he said.

The TSE unanimously revoked Dallagnol’s mandate, using a device from the Clean Record Law that determines that former members of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) with pending administrative disciplinary proceedings (PADs) must be considered ineligible.

Marco Aurélio mentioned that the former prosecutor only had representations pending, which had not yet been transformed into PADs. However, the Electoral Justice considered that “there is no doubt” that the disciplinary complaints opened against Dallagnol would lead to him being dismissed from the MPF.