Meet Bolsonaro’s lawyer in the coup plot case – 03/02/2024 – Power

In evidence due to the investigation into the coup plot in the throes of the Jair Bolsonaro government, lawyer Paulo Amador da Cunha Bueno has a series of affinities with the former president, his client: he is a monarchist, an admirer of the military and was on the board of the manufacturer of Taurus weapons.

Despite this, he says he prefers to highlight his professional credentials. He is a professor at PUC-SP, a doctor in criminal law and a criminal lawyer in what he calls a “boutique office” in Itaim Bibi, in São Paulo. The choice to emphasize the technical profile reflects a change in the former president’s defense strategy.

In the crosshairs of Justice on several fronts, Bolsonaro left aside in the most sensitive case of all the strident lawyer Frederick Wassef, who became part of the Federal Police’s list of targets. He opted for a trio of defenders who are divided into different roles.

Bueno, he says, is in charge of the criminal part. Bolsonaro has not yet been indicted, but suspicions about the crimes of attempted coup d’état, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal association led the PF to launch an operation in February.

Former minister of Bolsonaro’s Social Communication Secretariat, Fábio Wajngarten basically takes care of this same area, according to Bueno. “He has an OAB license, but he doesn’t practice law. But he was Communications Secretary and we know that this is a case that involves a lot of this issue,” he says.

Completing the trio is Daniel Tesser, a lawyer who runs an office specializing in customs and tax law. According to Bueno, Tesser was called because these two areas were important in the case of the investigation regarding the jewelry presented by Saudi Arabia.

The combination of efforts, mainly criminal law and communication, was evident in the use of the expression “semi-secret investigation” to designate the investigation into the coup articulation.

“It seems like it’s going viral,” Bueno told Sheet hours after using the expression following Bolsonaro’s testimony in which the former president remained silent. The lawyer used the term again to deny that his client had admitted a crime when talking about the so-called draft of the coup in a speech on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo.

His contact today with Bolsonaro is “direct and daily”, he states. The relationship of empathy was reinforced, according to him, by a coincidence involving the capture of Carlos Lamarca, a guerrilla fighter who took part in the armed struggle against the military dictatorship.

“Bolsonaro grew up on my cousin Jorge Alves Lima’s farm, in Eldorado [SP]”, says the lawyer.

“He met the Army because of an operation that took place in that region to capture the [guerrilheiro] Lamarca, that terrorist who held a terrorist training camp. And the person who commanded this operation was my grandfather.”

Another source of affinity with Bolsonaro is also in the lawyer’s family roots.

Just as the former president garnered the support of descendants of the royal family throughout his term, Bueno has among his cousins ​​some exponents of the fight for the return of the monarchy, such as Antônio Henrique Cunha Bueno, federal deputy for seven terms.

With a Brazil Empire flag as his profile image on WhatsApp, the former president’s lawyer also has sympathy for the monarchy.

The regime today would be unviable, according to him, because the royal family no longer represents the identity of the Brazilian people. But he considers the Republic a mistake. “I like the idea of ​​parliamentary monarchy. The monarch personifies the unity of a people.”

Affinities with the military are another point in common with Bolsonaro. The retired captain’s lawyer went through the São Paulo Reserve Officer Preparation Center (CPOR) in his youth. His grandfather fought in World War II and his father and cousins ​​also served in the military.

Bueno is also linked to another issue dear to Bolsonaro’s agenda: weapons. His name appears in shooting championships and he was part of the board of directors of Taurus, a weapons manufacturer, from 2011 to 2013.

He is also on the board of Paranapanema, a copper industry, and has already been a member of mining company Buritirama and construction company Azevedo & Travassos.

Bueno says that he joined the president’s defense following a recommendation from state deputy Tomé Abduch (Republicans), who was considered for the secretariat of the mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB).

The defender took on Bolsonaro as a client when a good part of the legal world’s elite had already shown their discontent with the then president. It was at the USP Law School that a letter was read in reaction to his coup threats. The text had more than 1 million signatures. Bueno’s was not among them.

That’s what democracy is, he says. “Many lawyers who sympathize with the most left-wing ideology today have expressed great indignation regarding guarantees that have been left aside in the conduct of these cases”, he states, citing for example the prohibition of clients communicating through their lawyers.

Small in size, Bueno’s office has seven professionals, according to him. One of the team members is the model and actress Angelita Feijó, now an intern, who is the lawyer’s wife.

Together with Wajngarten and Tesser, he has adopted a strategy in Bolsonaro’s defense that mixes legal arguments with political movements. At least, that was the way lawyers read the request for Minister Alexandre de Moraes to be removed from the investigations, which was seen as very unlikely from the beginning.

On the other hand, there are also signs of a strategy on Moraes’ part. The lack of detail in the minister’s decisions regarding the hierarchy of the alleged criminal organization that planned the coup d’état in favor of Bolsonaro indicates a staged investigation script that is adopted in cases with complex criminal groups.

If Moraes is described as patient and methodical by allies, Bueno also tries to project serenity. “I’m not taking Rivotril to sleep,” he says.