RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Conversations obtained on The Intercept Brasil website and published yesterday, August 12th, by BuzzFeed News suggest that Minister Sérgio Moro (Justice and Public Safety), while still a federal judge, instructed the prosecutors of Operation Lava Jato to refrain from seizing Eduardo Cunha’s cell phones the day before the former president of the Chamber of Deputies was arrested.
According to the website, Moro’s suggestion in a conversation that took place on October 18, 2016, between him and the coordinator of the task force, Deltan Dallagnol, is inconsistent with the operation’s standards, since many notes and messages sent from the cell phones of contractors’ executives had prompted the investigations.
In the bundle of messages sent by an anonymous source to The Intercept Brasil, Dallagnol tries to schedule a meeting with then judge Moro to discuss the case: “We wanted to talk about the confiscation of the cell phones. We believe it is important, and we need to ask for it today.” Moro answers: “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
BuzzFeed points out that the message does not mention the face-to-face meeting they had. However, almost three hours later, Dallagnol sent a new message to Moro explaining that, after talking to prosecutors and taking into consideration what was said by the judge, Lava Jato refrained from seizing Cunha’s cell phones.
“We’ve discussed it here and we understand that it’s not necessary to ask for the cell phones, due to the risks, based on your considerations,” said the coordinator. Moro answers: “Ok, that too.”
Moro and the Ministry of Justice Deny
Eduardo Cunha had no privileged forum (at the STF) since September 2016, a month before his arrest.
BuzzFeed approached Lava Jato and the Ministry of Justice, who reported that the cell phones had already been seized. According to the website, however, the confiscation occurred almost a year before the arrest, in December 2015, during Operation Catilinárias.
“The Minister of Justice and Public Security does not acknowledge the authenticity of the messages obtained by criminal means, nor has he even discerned his name as an intermediary in the messages sent by BuzzFeed. In regard to the cell phones of former Deputy Eduardo Cunha, as widely reported by the press, these were seized by order of the STF under Precautionary Action 4044, before pre-trial detention,” declared Sérgio Moro.
“The Lava Jato task force in Curitiba does not acknowledge the messages that have been attributed to its members in recent weeks. The material originates from cybercrime and has been used, edited or misrepresented, to substantiate accusations and distortions that do not conform to reality. The search and seizure analysis of items contemplates several factors, including the effectiveness of investigations. In the case of the former Chamber president, his cell phones had already been seized by order of the Federal Supreme Court,” the task force of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said.