TSE wants to speed up actions that would make Bolsonaro ineligible – 01/22/2023 – Politics

In the sights of investigations by both the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) and the STF (Supreme Federal Court), former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) can see the outcome of part of the actions he is targeting this semester.

Members of the TSE want to speed up judgments and seek to analyze by the middle of the year processes that may make the former chief executive ineligible – that is, prohibited from running for elections.

A new front of investigations may also be opened against the former chief executive this year. The AGU (Advocacy General of the Union) evaluates the expenses of the former president’s corporate card to verify if there was misuse of the public machine.

Lawyers close to the PT point out their misgivings about some expenses that have become public. They say it is necessary to find out whether the use of the card for supplies and excessive purchases in bakeries in periods close to motorcycles could constitute an illicit use of public money in a pre-campaign action.

Ministers of higher courts assess that there are indications of embezzlement, misuse of public money for personal gain, in some of Bolsonaro’s expenses.

The analysis by the AGU would be more comprehensive in relation to the accounts and is not focused on the electoral period. If they find something that suggests wrongdoing, the government itself could take legal action and request compensation.

On another front, the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) is verifying the real amount that was spent on the presidency’s card because the amount would be higher than what was made public at the beginning of this month.

If there are indications of expenses in the pre-campaign or in the campaign that violate the Electoral Law, lawyers, including those from the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), may ask to gather the information in the Aijes records (Ação de Investigação Judicial Eleitoral ) pending at the TSE.

There are 17 actions of this type pending against Bolsonaro in the electoral court that could lead to the loss of the former president’s political rights.

Traditionally, these lawsuits have been slow and required robust evidence. But some elements weigh for magistrates to want to speed up lawsuits against Bolsonaro.

The electoral corregidor himself, Benedito Gonçalves, minister of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), who reports on these actions, indicated to allies that he wanted to speed up the pace of judgments, considering that this type of instrument ends up dragging on for years. He believes it is necessary to close the cases.

There is yet another reason why the TSE wing composed of members of the STF wants to judge the actions until June. According to people close to TSE ministers, the magistrates intend to annihilate the bill before Minister Ricardo Lewandowski retires in May. That’s because his departure will result in the entry of Kassio Nunes Marques, nominated for the Supreme by Bolsonaro.

The idea is that the Supreme Ministers of the current composition of the electoral court vote in the same way. Interlocutors of ministers say that the climate today at the TSE is to declare Bolsonaro’s ineligibility.

The trend grew after the coup acts of January 8, when Bolsonarist militants invaded and destroyed the headquarters of the three Powers. Although the former president was in Orlando, in the United States, members of the Judiciary and the Lula government attribute the vandalism against the buildings of Congress, Planalto and STF to past gestures and omissions by Bolsonaro.

Of the Aijes at the TSE, the most advanced is one presented by the PDT. She points out that Bolsonaro would have used the structure of the Palácio da Alvorada for a meeting with ambassadors to attack the integrity of the electoral system. On the occasion, the former president questioned the smoothness of the ballot boxes.

The PDT points to the alleged practice of abuse of political power and misuse of the media.

The instruction of the process is scheduled for February 8, with the testimony of Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI), who was Minister of the Civil House. This Aije may be the first to be judged.

The pace of judgment of actions is defined by the magistrate and the president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes. According to allies, both are willing to speed up the process.

Bolsonaro’s opponents, including Lula’s campaign, still question the release of an extra R$1,000 aid installment for truck drivers and taxi drivers, the making of millions of Auxílio Brasil cards and the distortion of official agendas.

After January 8, the PDT and PT asked Benedito to include the draft of the coup decree found by the Federal Police in the house of Bolsonaro’s former Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres.

A legal debate that is expected to take place in the trial against Bolsonaro is about how far the court can advance in relation to the initial charge presented in the lawsuit.

This was one of the main arguments that the ex-president’s lawyers used in the defense sent to the TSE regarding the inclusion of the draft of the coup in the process in which the PDT requests Bolsonaro’s impeachment due to the meeting held in Alvorada with ambassadors.

The defense said that the rapporteur himself had already delimited the object of the process and, in the argument, transcribed an excerpt from the magistrate’s decision that cites that “the action has as factual cause of request the alleged deviation from the purpose of the meeting held on July 18, 2022”.

“Easy to understand: once the cause of the request and the request have been delimited, the detailed contradictory has been implemented and the deed has been thoroughly remedied, the electoral action has concluded the nomination phase and is stabilized”, says the piece, signed by lawyer Tarcísio Vieira of oak.

If the internal movement in the court is successful, the processing of the action against the former president will be very different from the way the court has judged similar cases in recent years.

The action that called for the impeachment of the ticket of Dilma Rousseff (PT) and Michel Temer (MDB), for example, only had the judgment completed more than two and a half years after the end of the election that elected the duo in 2014.

When the TSE analyzed the issue, the petista had already been removed from office and Temer was the president of the Republic.

The two were accused by the PSDB of taking advantage of bribes negotiated with contractors and revealed by the Lava Jato operation in the campaign, which would constitute abuse of political and economic power. By 4 votes to 3, however, the action was rejected in June 2017.

A few years later, the court took even longer to adjudicate on the lawsuits filed against Bolsonaro on the grounds that he benefited from a mass firing scheme of fake news against his opponents in the 2018 elections.

The case was tried at the end of the former president’s third year in office, in October 2021.

On that date, the majority of the court concluded that the existence of an illicit scheme for the propagation of false news via WhatsApp to benefit Bolsonaro was proven, but assessed that it was not sufficiently serious to revoke the winning ticket of the presidential election.