PF targets ‘political core’ in new front against Bolsonaros – 01/29/2024 – Power

This Monday (29), the Federal Police carried out search and seizure warrants targeting councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicans), in the third operation of the investigation into the so-called “Abin Paralela” in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

PF agents searched addresses linked to Carlos in the city of Rio de Janeiro — a house, his office at the City Council and his political office —, as well as the family’s summer residence, in Vila Historica de Mambucaba, in Angra dos Reis.

In the decision authorizing the searches this Monday, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), reports that the PF’s objective was to “advance in the political core, identifying the main recipients and beneficiaries of information illegally produced in the scope of Abin [Agência Brasileira de Inteligência]”.

“The criminal organization infiltrated in Abin also used illegal methods to carry out clandestine actions directed against people ideologically qualified as opponents, with the aim of ‘obtaining political gain as they created narratives to involve public authorities from the opposition political stratum of the then situation'”, wrote Moraes.

This Monday’s action is a new investigative front targeting the Bolsonaro family, which in recent years has been at the center of investigations involving, for example, the practice of “rachadinha” and the articulation of digital militias.

Carlos Bolsonaro, who was mainly responsible for the online campaign strategy in the presidential election in 2018, had already been included in an investigation into the spread of fake news, even during his father’s term. He did not comment on Monday’s searches.

The authorization for the searches — which were requested by the PF and had a partially favorable opinion from the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) — is based on a message from 2020 in which an advisor to Carlos asks, through an assistant to Alexandre Ramagem, then head of Abin, to gather information about investigations against the then president of the Republic and his children.

In the message, advisor Luciana Almeida says: “Good morning, how are you? I really need help.” Then, she sends another text with reference to inquiries. “PF Delegate. Dr. Isabella Muniz Ferreira – PF Police Station Special Inquiries Inquiries: 73,630 / 73,637 (Involving PR and 3 children).”

Ramagem, who is close to the Bolsonaro family and is now a federal deputy, was the main target of the previous operation, carried out last Thursday (25). The first operation was carried out last October.

According to the PF, the findings indicate that the presidential family used Ramagem to obtain confidential information.

In February 2020, for example, the then director of Abin reportedly printed a report with “information from ongoing electoral inquiries at the Federal Police that listed politicians from Rio de Janeiro.”

In an excerpt from the representation cited in the decision, the PF says that confidential information printed by Ramagem was “possibly to be delivered to the recipients of the political core”.

“The request for ‘help’ referred to investigations that would involve children of the then President of the Republic and himself. The representative authority sees in the episode the resource of what it calls the political core of Dr. Ramagem’s group, to obtain confidential information and /or actions not yet fully clarified”, says an excerpt from the PGR’s statement on the PF’s search request.

The police went to Angra in a Federal Highway Police helicopter, but initially did not find anyone from the Bolsonaro family. The former president, Carlos and senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) had gone out on a boat to fish, according to allies and the former president’s defense.

The place entered the PF’s search list after the discovery that Carlos was in the house, from where he broadcast a live with his father this Sunday (28), alongside Eduardo Bolsonaro.

Since March, the PF has been investigating the suspicion that the Bolsonaro administration has used the Israeli FirstMile software with the aim of spying on political opponents, in addition to Abin having sheltered actions of private interest by the presidential family.

In Carlos’ office and political office, the PF seized ten computers, a cell phone and several documents. From the house in Barra da Tijuca, in the same condominium where the father lives, two computers, two cell phones, pen drives, a spy pen and other documents were taken.

From the family’s residence in Mambucaba, the PF took a cell phone and three laptops.

As the column Mônica Bergamo, from Sheet, the house was empty on Monday morning when the PF arrived at the scene. Bolsonaro and his sons had gone fishing and had not yet returned.

Images released by GloboNews late in the morning showed Bolsonaro and his children outside the house following the departure of PF agents who carried out the searches.

Also targets of the operation were the addresses of advisor Luciana Almeida, Alexandre Ramagem’s former advisor Priscila Pereira e Silva, and military officer Giancarlo Gomes Rodrigues, who was assigned to Abin during Ramagem’s administration.

At Rodrigues’ house, in Salvador, the PF found a computer belonging to Abin.

Bernardo Fenelon, who is a lawyer for the Abin professional association and said he represents Giancarlo’s wife, stated, in a statement, “that the computer seized in the house [da] ABIN’s federal public servant was, in fact, its functional apparatus”.

The defense also claims that she was not the target of the warrant and that the seizure of her assets was illegal.

Live this Sunday, alongside his sons Flávio, Carlos and Eduardo, Bolsonaro denied that he had created a “parallel Abin” to spy on opponents. This Monday, the former president told the column Mônica Bergamo, from Sheetthat the intention of the operation is to “make fun” of him and his family.

“The defense understands that there was an excess in carrying out the search and seizure, while personal objects of citizens other than councilman Carlos Bolsonaro were seized, simply because they were at the address where the search was carried out”, says a note signed by the lawyers Paulo Amador da Cunha Bueno, Daniel Bettamio Tesser and Fábio Wajngarten.

Flávio and Eduardo also reacted to the operation, arguing that the action was illegal and cinematic.

An advisor to Bolsonaro, Tercio Arnaud Tomaz, stated that his personal assets were improperly seized in the operation.

The advisor’s defense sent a petition to Moraes asking for the immediate return of a tablet and a laptop belonging to his client — which had been taken by the police even though it was clear that they did not belong to Carlos, the target of the operation.

Tércio’s lawyers also stated in a note that it is “unacceptable and inconceivable that third parties, with absolutely no relationship with the facts discovered, have their assets seized based on a malicious and unseemly interpretation of a specific court order.”

Tércio Arnaud was at the Bolsonaro family’s beach residence during the operation.

Eduardo Bolsonaro also spoke out about the issue on his social networks.

“The order was so generic that it was considered seizing the cell phone of this federal deputy and other people who might be at the residence,” he wrote.

A Sheet He sought assistance from the Federal Police on Monday night, but there was no response until the report was published.

Reports produced by the agency under Bolsonaro and the use of FirstMile spy software are at the center of the PF investigation.

Investigators claim that Abin officers and federal police officers stationed at the agency monitored the steps of Bolsonaro’s political opponents and produced information reports “through clandestine actions” without “any judicial or Public Prosecutor’s Office control.”

The spy program investigated by the PF has the ability to obtain information about people’s approximate location. It does not record conversations or message exchanges.

In addition to Carlos, the police are also investigating alleged use of the agency to favor Flávio and Jair Renan.

The PF claims that Abin under Ramagem also used the FirstMile software to monitor the then president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, and former deputy Joice Hasselmann, both political enemies of Bolsonaro.