Pardon to Daniel Silveira: Aras compares Bolsonaro to Trump – 04/28/2023 – Politics

The Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, compared the pardon of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to former federal deputy Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ) with cases in which former presidents of the United States Donald Trump and Bill Clinton granted forgiveness to close people.

The attorney general also defended that sovereign clemency is a political act by the President of the Republic and must be preserved.

Aras made his oral support in the session last Thursday (27), when the STF (Federal Supreme Court) began to judge the legality of the pardon. The conclusion of the discussion, however, was postponed to next Wednesday (3).

“Over there, there were cases in which pardons were granted to people close to the president, such as what happened to Donald Trump, who pardoned his campaign coordinator, and Bill Clinton, who, on the last day of the presidential term, pardoned his brother, who had been convicted of drug involvement,” said the attorney general.

Aras also stressed that the pardon is provided for in the Constitution. “The contested act did not violate the material limits expressly influenced and set by the Constituent Assembly. It did not forgive the crime of torture, drug trafficking, terrorism and those defined as heinous”, he argued.

So far, only the parties to the proceedings have been heard by the Court. No minister even cast a vote.

Silveira was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for a series of threats to STF ministers. He was pardoned, however, by the former president.

Unlike the pardon, aimed at specific groups or categories, the grace is an individual pardon, granted exclusively by the President of the Republic to extinguish or reduce the penalty imposed by Justice. It is prohibited only for crimes of torture, drug trafficking and heinous crimes.

Silveira was condemned by the STF for the crimes of coercion in the course of the process —when a person uses violence or threatens to gain advantage in a judicial process— and for inciting an attempt to prevent the free exercise of Powers. The deputy was denounced by the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic).