Process against senator with money in his underwear advances – 06/14/2023 – Power

The Ethics Council continued disciplinary proceedings against Senator Chico Rodrigues (PSB-RR), caught with money in his underwear, and four other parliamentarians: Randolfe Rodrigues (without party-AP), leader of the Lula (PT) government in Congress, Cid Gomes (PDT-CE), Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO) and Styvenson Valentim (Podemos-RN).

The council met this Wednesday (14) for the first time since 2019 and addressed part of the complaints that have been stopped for five years.

To try to speed up the work, the president of the collegiate, senator Jayme Campos (MDB-MT), asked for a legal analysis of the Advocacy of the Senate to assess which representations meet the minimum requirements.

Of the 43 requests that were accumulated on the agenda, the Advocacy has analyzed 12 so far. Six were admitted to this Wednesday’s session, six were shelved and one —against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ)— was removed from the agenda.

The preliminary examination of admissibility does not enter into the merits of the cases. The idea is to analyze only formal issues, such as the legitimacy of who made the request and the contemporaneity of the facts with the term of office.

After this first stage, the petitions will be converted into complaints —referring to less serious cases, which only lead to a warning or censure— or representations —which could lead to the senator’s mandate being revoked or temporarily lost.

In the case of Chico Rodrigues, the request to open the process was presented by the parties Rede Sustentabilidade and Cidadania. Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) was chosen as rapporteur for the case.

The senator was spotted in 2020 in a PF (Federal Police) operation against the diversion of resources intended to combat Covid-19. He was removed from office by decision of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) and only returned to his mandate in February 2021.

At the time, the parliamentarian stated in a letter to colleagues that he had never committed any offense and that he was unable to “maintain the most appropriate balanced behavior” because he panicked with the arrival of the PF.

The eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is the target of a request from the acronyms PT, PSOL and Rede Sustentabilidade for alleged involvement with militias in Rio de Janeiro. Campos said that the representation against Flávio will be analyzed in the next session, still without a date.

Another petition against Flávio Bolsonaro was filed in this Wednesday’s session. The Council also filed requests against senators Jayme Campos (president of the group), Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), Humberto Costa (PT-PE), Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), in addition to former senator Paulo Rocha (PT- SHOVEL).

After the process, the Ethics Committee may propose a warning, censure, temporary loss of mandate or impeachment. The last two punishments also need to be approved by the full Senate.