TRE denies PL’s attempt to prevent new witnesses in Moro’s action

The PL’s attempt to prevent the inclusion of new witnesses and documentary evidence in the action against the senator Sergio Moro (União-PR) pending in the Electoral Court of Paraná was denied by the judge Mario Helton Jorge. The judge left the report of the case this Tuesday (4), the date of the end of his mandate in the Regional Electoral Court of the State (TRE-PR). The denial of the motion for clarification filed by the defense of Jair Bolsonaro’s party was filed by the judge on Saturday (1) and appears in the Electronic Journal of Justice in this Thursday’s edition (6).

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The expectation of the PL was that the judgment of the embargoes would already fall on the new rapporteur of the process, the judge Dartagnan Serpa Sa, who assumes the role of rapporteur based on seniority at the Court. The party’s lawyers filed the embargoes on the 22nd, asking the rapporteur for clarification on the inclusion in the process of more witnesses to be heard due to new facts requested by Moro’s defense, in addition to a video, which would serve as documentary evidence.

The inclusion of witnesses in the action for Moro’s defense was justified by an interview given to CNN by the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, in May. At the time, Costa Neto stated that the PL candidate who ran in the elections and came second, Paulo Martins, feared losing the election due to the disclosure of an electoral poll that would have more than 30 days and that positioned him behind Moro, which would influence the electorate.

The senator’s defense concluded that the interview made it clear that Martins pointed to the research as the cause of defeat, and not the thesis established in the lawsuit, which asks for the impeachment of the senator for abuse of power and illicit use of financial resources during the pre-campaign in the 2022 elections. Hence the request for inclusion in the file.

The request was accepted and the PL filed the embargoes questioning the rapporteur about not having heard his lawyers before acceptance, violating the adversarial principle.

Decision

In the decision in which he denies the embargoes filed by the PL, the judge states that there would be no need for the opposing party to manifest regarding the inclusion of the interview video and new witnesses in the process, since the evidence would already be known to the party“because they were produced by the president of the author himself, and there is no mention of surprise in the hypothesis”.

The rapporteur goes on to justify that the facts reported in the petition for inclusion of evidence by Moro’s defense, as well as the content of the video, “will be the subject of oral evidence, in relation to which the appellant will be able to actively participate in its production”.

Mario Helton Jorge also says he was still based on the positioning of the Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Officewhich gave a favorable opinion on the production of the requested evidence, and states that there is no doubt that the interview, as it took place in May (the action was filed by the PL in November of last year), falls within the new suit concept. “Regardless of the content of the president’s statements, but which, in this case, clearly have a close relationship with the content and even the motivation for the demand”, says Mario Helton Jorge.

For the rapporteur, it is also a decision of the judge whether or not to include new testimonial evidence. “The occurrence of new facts authorizes the questioning of a witness not listed in the complaint, provided that the court is convinced of the convenience of the evidence as a formative element of its conviction”, he justifies in the decision.

The PL’s action against Moro remains unified with a similar action filed in December last year by the PT. The processes will follow the instructions separately, but there must be a single sentence for both, so that there is no conflict of decisions, because they deal with the same object.

The next step for Judge Dartagnan Serpa Sá, who takes over the processes, should be to hear the defense and prosecution witnesses.

What are the actions about?

The PL and PT actions against Moro allege alleged abuse of economic power by irregular spending during the pre-campaign, when Moro was still affiliated with Podemos and intended a probable candidacy for the presidency. The parties allege that he would have used resources proportional to a campaign for the position, having subsequently run for the Senate for União Brasil, which would put him in an advantageous position over his competitors. Accusations, these, which are refuted by Moro’s defense.

In case of conviction in the TRE, the most certain scenario is that Moro resorts to Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which will endorse or reverse the decision of the regional court. Afterwards, an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) is possible, even if a possible cassation is processed based on the decision of the TSE, after being endorsed by the Board of Directors of the Senate. If convicted, Sergio Moro may have his mandate revoked and be ineligible for 8 years.

Sergio Moro’s press office was contacted to comment on the decision on the PL’s embargoes, but the senator preferred not to comment.

New rapporteur

Who takes the place of Mario Helton Jorge in the TRE is the judge of the Court of Justice of Paraná (TJ-PR) Luciano Carrasco Falavinha. Only after the inauguration, scheduled for this Thursday (6), would the processes involving Sergio Moro be distributed via the system, according to the Regional Electoral Court (TRE-PR) last week.

However, this Wednesday (5) the court stated that the election of the new rapporteur will follow the Resolution No. 792/2017 of TRE-PR, which states that, in the event that the vice-president assumes the functions of president for a period longer than 15 days, the oldest substitute judge in the category of judge will be summoned to replace him. Dartagnan Serpa Sá has been a judge at TJ-PR since 2009 and has been a substitute judge at TRE-PR since 2021.