Planalto considers Lula’s speeches against Moro “disastrous”

Members and allies of the Planalto Palace are mobilizing behind the scenes to try to soften the effects of the speeches of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) against Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) in recent days. With the negative repercussions for the government, Lula met this Friday (24th) with at least eight ministers and several leaders of the National Congress to discuss the effects of the crisis on the Executive. One of the strategies will be to use the trip to China to take the focus off Lula’s statements, which were classified as “disastrous” by interlocutors from the PT itself.

On Thursday (23), during an agenda in Rio de Janeiro, the PT even suggested that the operation by the Federal Police to dismantle a plan by the First Command of the Capital (PCC) against authorities, including Moro, would be a “setup” by the senator.

“I think it’s another set-up by Moro. I’m going to find out what happened because it’s clear that it’s a set-up by Moro”, said the petista.

However, documents from the process that led to the arrest of 11 members of the PCC this week brought concrete evidence that there was a cell of the armed faction ready to kidnap or kill the senator and his family members. The police obtained material evidence that criminals prowled around Moro’s house and even rented properties to watch over his steps and that of his family.

It became clear that this was not a setup, but an elaborate plan to silence the senator. It was revenge for the fact that Moro, when he was Minister of Justice, had introduced measures that greatly reduced the ability of PCC leaders, who are serving sentences in federal prisons, to communicate with their subordinates on the streets.

Privately, PT leaders evaluated that the president’s speech was “disastrous” and that Lula committed a “faulty act” in reverberating the subject. Before Lula commented on the subject, Planalto allies tried to promote the narrative that the PF operation showed that the corporation was acting in a “republican” way during the PT government.

Government leader in the National Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), even accused Moro of trying to politicize the episode. “Senator Moro was aware of the Federal Police investigations. Trying to politicize this issue is bad karatism. The PF, under the command of President Lula, acted in a republican way to protect the life of an opponent who illegally and unfairly took him to prison”, said Rodrigues the day before Lula’s speech.

Along the same lines, Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) went so far as to say that Lula had “saved” Moro. “Lula’s PF saved Moro’s life. And this operation proves by A plus B that Lula governs for everyone”, wrote the petista on the networks.

Planalto will invest in Lula’s agenda in China to ease the crisis against Moro

This Friday’s ministerial meeting was scheduled to take place in the morning at the Planalto Palace, but was postponed after the PT member was diagnosed with mild pneumonia. At the meeting, which took place at the Alvorada Palace, Lula heard from his assistants that it is necessary to change the government’s narrative to soften the effects of the declaration against the senator from Paraná.

According to government interlocutors, the main agenda of the meeting at the official residence of the Presidency was to address the impasse between the Chamber and the Senate regarding the processing of provisional measures in Congress. But the effects on the lines against Moro were also discussed by the PT’s assistants.

Lula was advised by his ministers to use the trip to China to assuage opposition criticism. The assessment is that the PT will need to explore the agenda in the Asian country to the fullest to overcome the negative repercussions of the lines against Moro. Lula was supposed to leave for Beijing this Saturday (25), but he postponed it until Sunday (26) to deal with his health condition.

According to the Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Márcio Macêdo, Lula “is fine” and the trip to China is maintained. “It was the beginning of pneumonia, which is being treated”, said Macêdo, who was among the members of the meeting in Alvorada.

Lula’s speech against Moro provoked reactions within the Federal Police

In addition to criticism from opposition members, Lula’s statements about Moro’s alleged “framing” provoked negative reactions to Planalto within the Federal Police. The investigative work on the PCC’s plan against the authorities was supported by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and the operation against the suspects was authorized by the Justice.

In a statement, the Association of Federal Police Delegates expressed support for the work of the investigators. “The investigations were conducted with caution, responsibility and legal support, certainly obtaining a strong evidentiary framework during the course of the Police Inquiry”, he highlighted.

In addition to the accusations against Moro, Lula even questioned the actions of Judge Gabriela Hardt, responsible for authorizing requests for arrests against PCC members. Hardt replaced Moro himself in Operation Lava Jato, when the former judge resigned from his position, at the end of 2018, to take over the Ministry of Justice in the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The magistrate even sentenced Lula to 12 years in prison for money laundering and passive corruption in the Sitio de Atibaia case. The judge’s decisions ended up annulled by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which considered the court of Paraná incompetent to judge Lula.

“I’m going to research and find out the reason for the sentence, it seems that the judge wasn’t even active when she gave her opinion to him. But that’s for us to wait”, said Lula. and revealed the details about the PCC’s plans against the life of Moro and other authorities.

Investigations gave details of the PCC’s plan against Sergio Moro

To get around the crisis provoked, the Minister of the Social Communication Secretariat (Secom), Paulo Pimenta (PT), said that Lula’s statement regarding the PF action was not intended to question the institution’s work, but rather “the set of coincidences” involving Lava Jato actors in the case and the “method” of repercussion used by Moro when commenting on the operation. The criticisms also refer to the “timing” of the decision that revealed the plan to kidnap the senator.

At the same time, Pimenta criticized the judge’s decision to withdraw the secrecy of the investigations into the case. “Gabriela Hardt ends up exposing the investigations and, consequently, hindering them, since the investigations are still ongoing and deal with a sensitive issue, which is that of criminal organizations. Was your objective to help the PF?” asked Pimenta.

In a statement, the Federal Court of Paraná, the body responsible for Judge Gabriela Hardt, said that the withdrawal of secrecy from the process was a request from the delegate conducting the investigations, filed in the file at 2 pm on Thursday.

“However, as a precaution, the federal judge appointed to act in the case, understood it best to maintain secrecy level 1, for the safety of the investigated and victims, authorizing the disclosure only of police representations and decisions that authorized the arrests and searches, as well as as the custody hearing term”, says the note.

Evidence delivered by the PF to the Justice of Paraná points out that not only is Moro in the PCC’s sights, but also his children and his wife, federal deputy Rosângela Moro (União Brasil-SP). According to Gabriela Hardt, the evidence indicates that “criminal acts are effectively underway” in Curitiba.

Planalto believes that Moro gained political projection

In addition to talking about the “framing”, Lula had already been the target of questions when he said during an interview with the website Brazil 247 that “it would only be fine when f. with Moro”. Since then, Planalto had already set up an operation to try to curb the negative repercussions.

“Once in a while a solicitor would go in there on a Saturday or a week to visit, if everything was fine. Three or four attorneys would come in and ask: ‘Is everything okay?’. I was like, ‘It’s not okay. It will only be fine when I fuck this Moro’. You cut the word ‘f****’ there…”, said Lula in the interview.

Minister Paulo Pimenta even called a hasty press conference in an attempt to explain the president’s insults to Moro. “What generates the questioning was this set of coincidences, facts, that end up bringing revolt and a whole memory about a method that was used against him (Lula) several times, with the same characters. Much more than as president, but as a human being, the feeling of indignation is natural”, said Pimenta.

Privately, PT leaders assess that Moro gained political projection in the face of Lula’s “disastrous” speeches. However, they believe that the senator does not have the political capital to lead the opposition against the government.

So far, at least six requests for impeachment against Lula have already been filed in the Chamber, half of which are due to his statements against Moro. Despite this, the PT’s assessment is that the requests should not advance within the National Congress.

On Thursday (23), the senator refuted Lula’s statements and said that the president gives “a laugh to a family threatened by crime.”

“I was surprised by a speech by the President of the Republic who simply laughed at the threats to me and my family. [Lula] he went so far as to suggest that it might be a setup on my part. I vehemently repudiate these claims,” ​​Moro said.

Group of lawyers endorses Lula’s accusations against Moro

At the same time as the Planalto members’ strategy, the Prerogativas group, which is made up of lawyers, jurists and public defenders, prepared a note in which it endorses Lula’s accusations against Moro. The group has members who are sympathetic to the PT and critical of Lava Jato’s work.

“We know what Moro did last summer. Natural, therefore, that there are suspicions about his behavior in this episode. exclusively on the timing of the successful operation in question,” he said.

The legal group also argues that the PT president did not question the merits and necessity of investigations and protective measures. “This is what really matters”, says the note, which praises the PF, the Public Ministry and the Ministry of Justice.