Minister Raul Araújo voted for Bolsonaro’s acquittal; see arguments

Minister Raul Araújo voted this Thursday (29) for the acquittal of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the trial that could leave him ineligible for eight years. The former president is accused of abuse of political power and misuse of the media for a meeting with ambassadors held in July 2022. The vice-president, Walter Braga Netto, is also a defendant in the action. So far, the score is 2 x 1 for Bolsonaro’s conviction and Braga Netto’s acquittal.

Araújo opened a divergence in relation to the vote of the rapporteur, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, who decided to condemn the former president. Contrary to what Bolsonaro was expecting, Raul Araújo did not ask for the trial to be interrupted to have more time to analyze the case.

The magistrate understood that the meeting held by the then pre-candidate for re-election, in June 2022, with ambassadors, in which he criticized electronic voting machines, did not represent abuse of political power and misuse of the media. This is because he does not believe that the imputed facts had the real capacity to change the result of the electoral process.

He also understood impeachment and ineligibility to be extreme and exceptional measures in the face of the supremacy of the popular vote, which “only legitimizes itself in absolutely inescapable situations”. In addition, he took into account the period of the event, before the actual electoral period, before the recognition of candidacies.

“Electoral justice is valued for the principle of minimal intervention in favor of the sovereignty of the popular vote. So, one has to ask: did that conduct interfere with the election result?”, he highlighted.

Minister Araújo clarified in his vote that citizens have the right to prefer and question the current voting systems, in accordance with the guarantee of freedom of expression established in the Constitution. “Everyone is free to choose to adhere to different models or propose alternatives,” he said. In this sense, Bolsonaro would only express a discussion about the printed vote.

“Obviously, it is not defended that freedom of expression encompasses orchestrated disinformation. The right to express ideas does not protect those who intend to deceive voters through edited content, seeking to deceive and confuse them using artifices and emotional triggers. , under the justification of minimizing disinformation in campaigns, nor can the public power unduly restrict freedom of expression in its individual sphere, curbing channels that exist to spread thoughts and opinions. While electoral disinformation has to be repelled, the State action must be based on respect for freedom of expression,” he declared.

He also cited the record turnout of voters in the 2022 elections to argue that Bolsonaro’s statements against electronic voting machines at the meeting with ambassadors were not enough to influence the vote.

Draft found with Torres should not have been included in the action

Araújo was also against the inclusion of the draft found at the home of former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres in the case file – the text foresaw the imposition of a state of defense on the TSE to review the election results. Raul Araújo considered that this characterizes an undue objective expansion of the demand, saying that the supposed document has no relationship with the meeting of ambassadors in the pre-election period.

“I externalize objection to the predicted document [minuta] to the argument of affront to the stabilization of the demand, as well as to the principles of congruence and the contradictory and of the legal certainty. I argue that there is no connection with the demand, in addition to making up an apocryphal document that cannot even be considered legally as a document, “he said.

Araújo also pointed out that “the procedural legislation expressly rejects the extension of the object of the action, as provided for in article 329 of the Code of Civil Procedure”. He stated that it is not appropriate “to take advantage of a peripheral and still strange element, lacking in relation to the facts narrated” for use in the process, “under penalty of undue extrapolation of the cause of action, in a true unreasonable expansion”.

He also recalled the understanding of the TSE itself in the judgment of the Dilma-Temer ticket in 2017. On that occasion, when judging the impeachment of former presidents Dilma Rousseff (PT) and Michel Temer (MDB), the Court did not admit the inclusion of elements that were not in the records since the beginning of the process.

Raul Araújo also said that the vote of the rapporteur for the action, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, for Bolsonaro’s condemnation, extrapolates “the original contours of the copyright claim”, when referring to the inclusion of the draft in the action.