PF removes delegate who investigated Bolsonaro’s former minister and denounced interference – 04/24/2023 – Politics

The Federal Police removed Chief Bruno Calandrini, responsible for investigations against Milton Ribeiro, former Minister of Education in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, from his post. The agent had denounced alleged interference from the top of the corporation and the former president in the case.

Ordinance of April 20 preventively suspended the delegate and removed him from the exercise of the position until the final decision of an administrative process that runs against him.

On June 22, 2022, Ribeiro was arrested by the PF (Federal Police) based on accusations that there was a negotiation desk at the MEC (Ministry of Education) with the participation of pastors without a position in the government.

Pastors Gilmar Santos and Arilton Moura, close to Bolsonaro, former MEC advisor Luciano de Freitas Musse and Helder Bartolomeu, Arilton’s son-in-law, were also arrested at the time. All were later released.

The suspicion of interference surfaced the day after the arrest after a message from the case’s delegate, sent to colleagues. Calandrini said in the text that the investigation would have been “harmed” due to the different treatment given by the police to the former minister. The episode was revealed by Sheet.

The disclosure of Milton Ribeiro’s telephone interception also served as fuel for the accusation of interference.

In a conversation on June 9, 2022 with a daughter, captured in an interception, the former minister says that he spoke with Bolsonaro that day and that the then president would have said he had a “feeling” that they would reach him through the investigation against his former assistant.

In addition to the message to colleagues, Calandrini took forward the interference complaint and indicted delegates who acted in the operation.

The delegate was contacted, but did not respond until the publication of the text.

The police officer took to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) two representations in which he accuses Bolsonaro’s then PF leadership of trying to shield those investigated and their relationship with the former president and his then Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres.

In the understanding of the delegate, the documents, which include reports of phone calls and emails, indicate that the PF leadership tried to change the place of imprisonment of Pastor Arilton Moura, with the aim of taking him to the headquarters of the PF superintendence in Pará.

As soon as he was arrested, Arilton threatened, in an intercepted telephone call, that he could “destroy everything” and said he was close to Bolsonaro, who had already taken açaí from Pará to the president. Agents involved in the arrest have gathered documents that refute any interference.

The delegate’s way of acting began to be contested and criticized by colleagues within the PF and internal investigations were opened to determine whether he committed irregularities.

The investigation against Ribeiro was opened at the STF in March last year due to the special jurisdiction of the then minister. With his resignation, he was sent to the first instance but, in June, he returned to the STF after mentioning Bolsonaro’s alleged interference.

Under the rapporteurship of Minister Cármen Lúcia, the case was placed in secrecy, and the investigation records are in court. Upon rising to the STF, the investigation practically stopped moving and the investigations are blocked, as the Sheet showed in February.

Ribeiro is being investigated for suspected crimes of passive corruption, prevarication, administrative law and influence peddling, in a case that has shaken Bolsonaro’s anti-corruption discourse.

The former minister left the government in March 2022, a week after the Sheet reveal an audio in which he said he prioritized demands from one of the pastors at Bolsonaro’s request.

The pastors asked for money in exchange for permits for works by the MEC, according to reports confirmed by mayors. There were even reports of requesting a gold bar for a manager.

The case involves leaders of the FNDE (National Education Development Fund) linked to centrão politicians.

The MEC body, handed over to the centrão by Bolsonaro, is the one who manages federal transfer resources for education projects — an audit by the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) sees crimes in the actions of FNDE leaders, such as the Sheet revealed.