PGR files investigation request against Paulo Pimenta – 05/27/2023 – Power

The Attorney General’s Office filed a request by opposition federal deputies to investigate Paulo Pimenta, minister of Secom (Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic) of the Lula (PT) government.

The request was based on reports from the Sheet that showed the omission by Pimenta of the declaration of a property to the Electoral Justice.

The house in Brasília was acquired for R$1.6 million in 2013 (equivalent to approximately R$3 million in inflation-adjusted values) and was not included in any equity list presented by the minister in the 2014, 2018 and 2022 elections.

The order for archiving was signed by Deputy Attorney General Lindôra Araújo on Wednesday (24). For her, the request elaborated by the deputies does not bring elements that allow “to affirm the presence of the willful intentional element in the conduct of the represented, who, as it appears, was limited to complying with what was requested by the party”.

“The mentioned relevant shock of public faith is also not visible, due to the simple fact that a property –duly declared in his wife’s Income Tax– no longer appears in the then candidate’s declaration of assets.”

Pimenta’s defense affirmed to the PGR, as well as to the Sheet, that the house is his and his wife’s property and that it is duly informed in her declaration to the Federal Revenue. According to him, the absence of data in the Electoral Court was because he followed the party’s guidelines on accountability.

For the Attorney General’s Office, the initiation of a formal investigation would only be justified “if the existence of minimal evidence of the active and concrete participation of the holder of the prerogative in criminal offenses remains demonstrated”.

“It is required that, for the establishment of investigative procedures in the criminal sphere, there is minimal evidence of the practice of some act prohibited by the legal system, which is not found in this file, at least at this preliminary moment of knowledge”, says the PGR.

Without the evidence, says the PGR, “there is a risk of delving into the private lives of the people being investigated”, which could constitute a “speculative and indiscriminate” investigation.

The request was made by deputies Dr. Frederico (Patriota-MG), Kim Kataguiri (União-SP), Luiz Lima (PL-RJ), Luiz Phillipe de Orleans e Bragança (PL-SP), Marcel Van Hattem (Novo-RS), Maurício Marcon (Podemos-RS ) and Rosangela Moro (União Brasil-SP). The document is also signed by Deltan Dallagnol, revoked by the Superior Electoral Court.

According to the parliamentarians, the non-declaration of the property to the TSE may constitute an electoral crime of ideological falsehood “since the omission of the acquisition of the property may have distorted the electoral accountability”.