Mendes: Comparing Moraes’ conduct to Lava Jato is irresponsible

Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), said this Wednesday (14) that the accusations against Minister Alexandre de Moraes regarding the use of unofficial methods to request information cannot be related to the methods of Operation Lava Jato.

On Tuesday (13), the newspaper S.Paulo Newspaper published a report in which it states that Moraes used “unofficial means” to order the production of information to investigate allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro during the 2022 elections, a period in which the minister was president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

Mendes’ statement was made during this afternoon’s Supreme Court session, in which the minister defended Moraes’ actions and said that there was no illegality in the requests. On social media, users compared the situation with the trial in which the Supreme Court declared former judge Sergio Moro biased in acting in Lava Jato cases.

According to the minister, comparisons with Lava Jato are “irresponsible” and have no “factual correlation”.

“I live, Dallagnol [ex-procurador Deltan Dallagnol] and his gang subverted the criminal process in various ways, with spurious combinations, aiming to convict specific targets. The judge in the case gave orders to the prosecutors and the police officers, instructed how the charges should be filed, ordered changes to the phases of the operations, offered witnesses to the prosecution, among many other absurdities that we were all able to see”, he stated.

In Gilmar Mendes’ assessment, the inference seeks to discredit the Supreme Court’s actions.

“Wanting to compare the methods used in that operation with the way Minister Alexandre conducted the proceedings underway in this Court is a desperate attempt to discredit the Supreme Federal Court, in pursuit of obscure ends related to the impunity of the coup plotters,” he added.