Zanin and Moro have a clash over Lava Jato on Saturday – 06/21/2023 – Politics

The expected interaction between Cristiano Zanin, nominated by Lula (PT) to the STF (Federal Supreme Court), and Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) in the Senate’s sabbatine this Wednesday (21) revolved around the possibility of the lawyer judging Operation Lava Jato cases and it went smoothly.

The lawyer said he will analyze case by case before declaring himself impeded or suspect.

“In the recent past, almost everything that worked in specialized criminal courts often received the Lava Jato label. This is not for me a criterion for legal control, but one that the law provides for, which is to analyze the parties and the content,” he said.

“Once a hypothesis of impediment and suspicion is identified, I will not have the slightest problem in declaring the impediment or suspicion and not participating in the trial.”

Zanin and Moro have been at odds since the lawyer defended Lula in Lava Jato, of which Moro was a judge.

During his career as Lula’s lawyer, Zanin became known for questioning the impartiality of the judges who tried cases against the president, often pointing out what he considered to be suspicious relationships.

Lula had convictions annulled because the Supreme Court considered former judge Sergio Moro partial, based on an appeal filed by Zanin.

On the sabbath, Moro told Zanin that he would ask tough questions, but that these were not personal issues. He asked, for example, that he detail his relationship with President Lula and whether he was, in fact, best man at the PT’s wedding to Janja.

“[A proximidade] goes beyond the relationship as a private lawyer?” Jet.

He answered the same thing, that he will analyze possibilities of impediment and suspicion on a case-by-case basis.

Zanin stated that he was not Lula’s best man at his wedding, but that he values ​​the relationship he has built over the last few years with the president. He pointed out, however, that he was only personally with the PT member this year when he was appointed to the Supreme Court, in a place where other Lula assistants were.

“My relationship has these contours. I will never deny it. On the contrary, I am grateful to President Lula for having nominated my name to the Federal Supreme Court”, he said.

According to the law, a magistrate is prevented from judging cases in which he, his spouse or a relative have acted – he is a partner of his wife, Valeska Teixeira, in her office. On Saturday, he said he will declare himself barred in these cases, in accordance with the law.

The question of suspicion is more subjective. The judge must declare himself a suspect if, for example, he is a close friend or a cardinal enemy of one of the parties.

Moro also wanted to know how the nominee will manifest himself, for example, regarding the decriminalization of drugs for personal consumption.

The nominee stated that, in this case, there is a case to be judged in the STF and he, if it is approved, cannot comment on it, since judges cannot comment on pending actions.

But he said, however, that the doctrine points out that one should analyze whether “a certain prohibition is reasonable for a specific case”.

Zanin is a friend of Lula and has advocated for him in Lava Jato cases, but he also has a history of acting as a legal representative for large companies and other politicians.

Proximity to the president raised criticism of the nomination among opponents and in circles in the legal world, but the lawyer has the approval of STF ministers and a large number of politicians.

Over the past week, Lula’s nominee toured the Senate offices to approach parliamentarians and garner support even among evangelicals and opponents of the current government.

On the 15th, Senator Veneziano Vital do Rego (MDB-PB) read his report on Zanin’s nomination, and stated that the lawyer meets the prerequisites to occupy the vacancy.

Veneziano highlighted the published articles and his 25-year career as a business, international, communication and electoral lawyer, in addition to “building and maintaining our constitutional jurisprudence, through the subscription of various Constitutional Claims, in order to ensure the authority of Supreme Court decisions”.

The image of a convinced guarantor conquered in the clashes with Moro and other members of Lava Jato is one of the main factors that left the Lula government optimistic for the easy approval of Zanin in the Senate.

With part of the senators being investigated and another part seeking shielding to avoid legal problems, the assessment is that the legal stance of carefully observing respect for the guarantees of those being investigated will have great weight in the vote of the majority of parliamentarians.

In the articulation to be approved, the lawyer had the help of STF ministers who have a good relationship with the political world, such as Gilmar Mendes and Alexandre de Moraes, and even former president Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) nominees for the court, such as Kassio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça.