Bolsonaro Now Denies Having Promised Moro a Seat on Brazil’s Supreme Court

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday, August 31st, that Federal Solicitor General, André Mendonça, is “incredibly suitable for a supreme court position”, stating that he had not promised the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sérgio Moro, his appointment to the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

The president implied that Moro would struggle to obtain Senate approval.

The president’s statements were given to a group of six journalists who were waiting for him to have lunch outside the Army Headquarters in Brasília.

He ordered his team to invite reporters to lunch, sat down at the table with them and talked for about an hour and a half. Recorders and cell phones were not allowed in.

At lunch, Bolsonaro was asked about the prospects of Moro being appointed as STF Justice, as well as that of André Mendonça, whom the president had already defined as “deeply evangelical”, a quality which he had previously said he wanted in his nominee to the Supreme Court.

“André Mendonça is incredibly suitable for a supreme court position,” the president said. “I made no commitment to Moro [to appoint] him to the Supreme Court]. What I promised during the campaign was to nominate someone with Moro’s profile [to the Supreme Court].

Bolsonaro said that it is necessary to “assess the day to day and how the Senate will evaluate Moro. He said Moro is “extremely technical,” but that he is politically “naive” because he “lacks cunning”.

On May 12th, the president declared that he would appoint Moro to the STF.

According to what Bolsonaro himself said at the time, the decision was part of an agreement reached between the two, after the elections, so that the first instance judge in Curitiba – renowned for the Operation Lava Jato trials – would take the position in the first rank of the new government.

The next day, however, the current minister told newspaper Valor that no agreement had been reached with the president.