Understand the law and the process that led to Deltan’s impeachment – 05/17/2023 – Power

Former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) lost his mandate as a federal deputy based on a judgment by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that considered the request for dismissal from the Federal Public Ministry to be a fraud against the law months before he needed to run for office .

In judgment on Tuesday night (16), unanimously, the ministers of the electoral court understood that the former coordinator of Operation Lava Jato should have been framed in the Clean Record Law for leaving the career of prosecutor of the Republic while he was involved in investigations with the CNMP (National Council of the Public Ministry).

The understanding results from a non-literal interpretation of the legislation, based on what the ministers understood to be a set of evidence.

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY
The Clean Record Law states that compulsorily retired members of the Public Ministry become ineligible for eight years; who have lost office by sentence; or who have requested resignation or voluntary retirement “pending administrative disciplinary proceedings”.

DELTA’S CASE
The former prosecutor of the Republic asked for exoneration in November 2021, when he was the subject of 15 procedures still in progress at the National Council of the Public Ministry (CNMP) to investigate functional infractions. These procedures, such as complaints, investigations and requests for measures, were not PADs (Disciplinary Administrative Processes), but could eventually enter the category along the way. After Deltan’s exoneration, they were archived, extinguished or paralyzed.

WHICH DELTAN CONDUCT WAS TARGETED BY CNMP
The procedures in progress at the Council investigated, among other points:

• Illegal sharing of information with foreign law enforcement agencies in Operation Lava Jato;
• Other breaches of the duty to keep secrecy on a confidential matter within the scope of Lava Jato;
• Celebration, as Lava Jato coordinator, of an agreement related to Petrobras funds;
• Posts on social networks criticizing the decision of the president of the STF, which could be configured as “infringement of the duties of treating with courtesy the people with whom one relates due to service and personal decorum”.

WHAT THE TSE ARGUED
In a decision followed by his peers, TSE Minister Benedito Gonçalves stated that Deltan anticipated his dismissal to prevent the procedures at the CNMP from becoming administrative processes, which would make him ineligible. This maneuver would constitute, in the minister’s understanding, “fraud of the law”, that is, an illegitimate attempt to escape the Clean Record Law.

WHAT ARE THE EVIDENCES OF FRAUD, ACCORDING TO THE TSE
The decision points to five indications that, added together, would prove that Deltan maneuvered to escape the Clean Record Law:

1. The previous existence of two disciplinary administrative processes in which the CNMP applied censure and warning sentences to Deltan, which could be considered antecedents for harsher punishments in later proceedings;
2. Fifteen procedures in progress at the CNMP that were archived, extinguished or paralyzed after the exoneration. These procedures could turn into administrative disciplinary proceedings and result in dismissal from office;
3. The fact that, on October 18, 2021, a prosecutor who worked with Deltan in Lava Jato was punished with dismissal by the CNMP for hiring and installing a billboard in honor of the task force, with a photograph in which Deltan appeared;
4. That, 16 days after that, Deltan asked for his resignation from the position of Public Prosecutor;
5. And that members of the Public Ministry only need to step aside six months before the election, that is, Deltan could have asked for his resignation in April 2022 and still be able to run.

WHAT ARGUED DELTAN’S DEFENSE
The defense of the former prosecutor stated in the process that he was not subject to any disciplinary administrative procedure at the time of his dismissal, therefore his case would not fit the hypothesis of ineligibility of the Clean Record Law. He also argued that Deltan asked for his resignation “for personal and political reasons”.