RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal deputies, opposition senators and former allies of President Jair Bolsonaro in Congress reacted to statements by entrepreneur Paulo Marinho in an interview with the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Saturday with requests for an investigation, impeachment, and even a ban of the party that elected the President and his vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) if the entrepreneur’s accusations are confirmed.
Marinho, who is an alternate for Flávio Bolsonaro’s Senate seat, claims he approached him after the second round of the presidential elections in 2018 and said he learned about the Federal Police’s Operation ‘Furna da Onça’.
The operation led to the investigation of a “splitting” scheme – a practice in which staff in politicians’ offices kick back a portion of their salaries to deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ), including Flávio, then a state deputy in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Marinho’s account, the senator, newly elected at the time, also said that the Federal Police delayed the operation until after the elections, so as not to jeopardize Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign and Flávio’s candidacy to the Senate. He allegedly had been briefed by a delegate in Rio. The operation occurred only after the second round, before the conversation reported by Marinho.
The President’s son also said he was told the investigation would reach Fabrício Queiroz, an employee in his cabinet and a former cabinet worker for Bolsonaro when he was a federal deputy.
Shortly after that, Queiroz was dismissed from Flávio Bolsonaro’s Rio cabinet, just as one of his daughters was dismissed from the office of the then federal deputy Jair Bolsonaro.
Federal Police will investigate the case
The Federal Police announced it will investigate the potential leak of classified information to the senator.
“I hope that the facts courageously disclosed by Mr. Paulo Marinho will be fully clarified,” said Sérgio Moro on social media, the ex-Minister of Justice who resigned accusing President Bolsonaro of trying to interfere in the PF. An inquiry launched by the PGR (Office of the Prosecutor General) at the STF (Federal Supreme Court) is investigating the case.
A group of 11 federal deputies has lodged a petition with the STF for the President’s son and his deputy to be heard in the inquiry into the President’s alleged attempts to interfere with the PF.
“If the allegations are confirmed, the TSE may annul the 2018 elections, it may ban Jair Bolsonaro and Mourão’s party in order to have new elections in 2020,” said Federal Deputy Kim Kataguiri of the MBL (Free Brazil Movement) in a video published on social media. “The denunciations are very serious”.
Fernando Haddad (PT), Bolsonaro’s opponent in the second round of the presidential elections, said there was fraud. “As suspected, Flávio Bolsonaro’s deputy confirms that the PF alerted him, between the 1st and 2nd rounds, that Queiroz would be the target of an operation, which was deferred to prevent the clan from being hurt during the elections. It’s called FRAUD!” he wrote on Twitter.
Federal Deputy Joice Hasselmann (PSL) is demanding investigations and says that matters will be uncovered, unless someone doesn’t want them to. “The criminal and his gang were warned,” she said on Twitter. “Information was anticipated to three people, under a marquee outside the police station in RJ … how about security cameras of the site??? It’ll be uncovered, unless someone doesn’t want it.”
According to the Workers’ Party (PT), through its press office, the opposition should advocate the annulment of the President and vice president’s office, with new elections later this year.
Gleisi Hoffmann, the party’s president and a federal Deputy, says the party will press the TSE “to move and judge the investigations of the 2018 elections that are dormant in its drawers”. “Brazil is being destroyed by a man who didn’t win the elections honestly,” she says.
In another attack, Deputy Enio Verri (PT-PR) said the party will ask for the opening of a CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) next week, along with other opposition parties. “State agents staged an electoral coup in 2018 to help the fraudulent election of Jair Bolsonaro, Congress needs to thoroughly investigate the denunciation, including the Bolsonaro clan’s involvement with organized crime,” he said of the case.
Paulo Pimenta, a PT Federal Deputy, confirmed the opposition in the Chamber will lodge a petition for the CPI to investigate the disclosures of Bolsonaro family’s former ally.
1 – The denunciation that the family of @jairbolsonaro was tipped off during Operation ‘Furna da Onça’, by a PF delegate from RJ, I had made in January 2019. On October 15th, 2008, Queiroz was fired from the office of @FlavioBolsonaro and his daughter from the office of @jairbolsonaro
— Paulo Pimenta (@DeputadoFederal) May 17th, 2020
PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) leader in the Chamber, Deputy Alessandro Molon, says the collection of signatures for a CPI begins next week.
“The denunciations made by Paulo Marinho are very serious,” he said in a statement. “They show that members of the Federal Police have contributed to obstructing justice in a way that influences the outcome of the 2018 elections, benefiting Bolsonaro. Everything needs to be investigated to ensure that Bolsonaro answers for his crimes”.
Federal Deputy Alexandre Frota (Brazilian Social Democracy Party – PSDB) also demonstrated on social media. “I don’t care how we get this garbage out of there,” he said earlier. If it’s going to be through impeachment, if it’s going to be with a criminal lawsuit, if it’s going to be Moro/Doria/Ciro Amoedo/Boulos/Lula/JWagner/Huck/Anitta/with or without protests without/with Maia/if it’ s going to be left/right/Coalition/renunciation/important is to leave.
Also in the Chamber, Deputy Marcelo Freixo (PSOL-RJ) described the situation denounced by the entrepreneur as electoral fraud and said he supports the launching of a CPI. “The operation that disclosed the splitting kickback scheme run by Queiroz in Flávio Bolsonaro’s cabinet was deferred by the Federal Police after the presidential election in order not to hurt the head of the mafia, Jair Bolsonaro. A CPI now, to investigate this crime,” he wrote on social media.
Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (REDE- DF) said that on Monday he would lodge a complain to the Senate Ethics Council and petition the annulment of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s mandate.
Senator Humberto Costa (PT) also used Twitter to discuss the case: “Connect the dots: 1 – According to Paulo Marinho, Flávio was tipped off about the Federal Police’s operation investigating the “splitting” scheme with Queiroz. 2 – At the time, Alexandre Ramagem was in charge of Jair Bolsonaro’s personal security.”
Source: UOL