TSE will notify Chamber of cancellation of Deltan – 05/17/2023 – Power

The TSE (Superior Electoral Court) will send a notification to the Chamber this Wednesday (17) to communicate the decision that impeached federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR).

The current rule determines that it is not up to the House to analyze the merits of the court’s determination, only to comply with the order without the possibility of reversing the loss of mandate of the parliamentarian, who was head of the Lava Jato task force at the Federal Public Ministry before joining the politics.

Despite this, in these situations, the Legislature usually follows a formal and bureaucratic rite after receiving the notification and opening a period, usually five days, for the deputy to manifest.

The procedure must be conducted by the Internal Affairs of the Chamber, currently headed by Deputy Domingos Neto (PSD-CE). After Deltan presents his defense, the rapporteur prepares a report and presents it to the Board of Directors for the official declaration of loss of mandate.

Thus, there is no forecast for a vote in the plenary or some kind of debate in the House on the TSE decision. Deltan’s only chance of reversing the current scenario would be to obtain an order from the STF (Federal Supreme Court) to suspend the effects of the electoral court’s decision.

In that case, he would have to appeal to the Supreme Court and the case would need to be distributed to a minister more sympathetic to Lava Jato. However, even if that were to happen, the individual decision would later have to be countersigned by the rest of the court.

In the assessment of members of the court, it is unlikely that he will get a majority in the plenary in his favor. First, because he is already starting the debate with three opposing votes, since the TSE decision was unanimous and the three members of the Supreme Court who make up the electoral court voted against him.

Second, because there is a current in the STF that has always been critical of the methods adopted by Deltan when he was a Lava Jato prosecutor and who will not hesitate to work to maintain the loss of mandate of the paranaense.

The former head of the operation’s task force was elected last year with more than 340,000 votes. Initially, the TRE-PR (Tribunal Regional Eleitoral do Paraná) rejected the action of the Brazilian Federation of Hope (PT, PC do B and PV) and the PMN against Deltan.

The TSE, however, upheld the argument that he could not have left his career as a public prosecutor to enter politics because he responded to investigations, disciplinary complaints and requests for action at the CNMP (National Council of the Public Ministry).

In a note, Deltan said he was outraged by the TSE’s decision and that an “unprecedented revenge” is underway in Brazil against “agents of the law who dared to fight corruption”.

The case’s rapporteur, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, presented a vote with severe criticism of Deltan and stated that the former prosecutor left office with the aim of circumventing ineligibility.

“The request for dismissal had the clear and specific purpose of circumventing the incidence of ineligibility”, said the minister. “That maneuver prevented the 15 administrative procedures being processed by the CNMP against him from leading to compulsory retirement or loss of office.”

The basis of the accusation was the Clean Record Law, which provides for the ineligibility of members of the Public Ministry who requested “voluntary dismissal or retirement pending administrative disciplinary proceedings”. If configured, ineligibility is for a period of eight years.

The disciplinary complaint is an investigative procedure for reporting a disciplinary misconduct attributed to a member of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It may be filed if the fact does not constitute a disciplinary infraction or criminal offense, or the internal affairs department may open an investigation to deepen the investigation.

The authors of the representations alleged that the former Lava Jato prosecutor anticipated his dismissal to get rid of 15 procedures then in progress in the council that could eventually motivate the opening of PAD (Disciplinary Administrative Process) —Deltan had responded to two PADs related to his performance, and he was imposed, in 2019, the less serious sanctions: warning and censorship.