A new leaked conversation by The Intercept shows current Supreme Justice Minister Sergio Moro while serving as a judge in the Car Wash (Lava Jato), directed the prosecutors’ media strategy against former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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Politics, Lack of Evidence Behind Lula Trial: Intercept Exposé
“The defense already put on their little show,” Moro quickly messaged a senior prosecutor in the Operation Car Wash task force, Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, right after questioning Lula for more than five hours, bracing for media’s take on the hearing.
Under the Brazilian judicial system, the judge and the prosecution are required to operate independently to ensure a fair trial. Yet Moro interfered directly on the case by dictating the prosecutors’ media strategy.
“Maybe, tomorrow, you should prepare a press release explaining the contradictions between his testimony and the rest of the evidence or with his previous testimony,” he ordered Dos Santos.
Immediately the prosecutor messaged his media team suggesting a dramatic shift in the team’s typical communications strategy. Up until that point, they had not commented publicly on the trial proceedings. As the press aides advise against, the chief prosecutor of the Car Wash task force, Deltan Dallagnol, comes in to support the plan.
The next day all major Brazilian news outlet copied the exact statement pushing Moro’s agenda to the public about the alleged "contradictions" in Lula's answers.
Another leak revealed on Tuesday, Moro chats with Dallagnol trying to prevent the task force from investigating right-wing former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, while ignoring evidence that his foundation collected bribes from Odebrecht's subsidiary Braskem. The then-judge asks about the “seriousness” of investigations by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) regarding the former head of state, telling Dallagnol he doesn’t want to "spoil someone whose support is important."
All this comes as Brazil now is facing a political earthquake as The Intercept Brazil published on Sunday an extensive and hard-hitting exposé on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash against Lula, and unethical involvement of current Supreme Minister of Justice, Moro.
The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro that the “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his party. As well as the lack of hard and documented evidence to establish a case against the former head of state.
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