Moro questions whether Zanin will declare himself impeded in cases involving Lula and Lava Jato

Lawyer for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in cases related to Operation Lava Jato that led him to prison in 2018, Cristiano Zanin was officially nominated for a vacancy on the Federal Supreme Court (STF) with distrust of the opposition to the current government. Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), who judged the cases of the operation when he was head of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, questioned the nomination due to his proximity to the president.

Moro says that he has no criticism of Zanin, but rather for his connection with Lula and how he would behave in the STF in the analysis of cases derived from Lava Jato or that have the president as part of it. For the senator, the Supreme Court is an independent body that has the attribution of controlling the Executive Power, especially the Presidency of the Republic.

“I have nothing personal against Cristiano Zanin, he worked at Lava Jato as a lawyer and I understand that he did a professional job, just as I did mine. My criticism is not of the person, but the fact that he was nominated by someone very close to the president, someone who was a personal lawyer and who is a personal friend of the president. We have no historical precedent here in relation to this”, said Moro in an interview with GloboNews this Friday (2).

Moro had Lava Jato sentences annulled by the Supreme Court and that had Zanin as a lawyer, such as those involving President Lula. The senator says he will question on Saturday in the Senate whether the jurist will declare himself prevented from acting in Lava Jato cases or cases that have Lula as one of the cited parties.

“The big question is whether a person with such close ties to the President of the Republic would have the necessary independence to separate the two things: friendship and professional work”, says Moro.

Lula said he was against nominating “friends” to the Court

Senator Sergio Moro recalls that the president himself said, during last year’s election campaign, that he would not appoint people close to him to the Supreme Court, that it would be a “republican” decision. “It is not prudent, it is not democratic for a President of the Republic to want to have the ministers of the Supreme Court as friends. I think the Supreme Court has to be chosen for competence, for curriculum, and not for friendship,” he said during the Band debate and in interviews.

Although Lula nominated his personal lawyer for the vacancy on the STF, the practice is not new and almost occurred during the government of former President Michel Temer (MDB), who even considered his lawyer, Antônio Mariz de Oliveira, for the position. However, the political side prevailed and indicated Alexandre de Moraes.

“President Lula’s nominations in previous governments were people who did not have such a close relationship with
[como agora]”, quoted Sergio Moro.

In the first two governments, Lula appointed nine ministers to the STF, including Cármen Lúcia and Dias Toffoli, but who ruled against him in Lava Jato cases. The first was responsible for approving Odebrecht’s accusation, and the second voted against the request for habeas corpus when he was arrested as a result of the Guarujá triplex case.

Moro, however, said that he accepts to receive Zanin in his office if he asks for a meeting. It is up to the senators to endorse the president’s nomination to the STF.