Zanin Seeks Answers Over Confidential Data in an Election File

Brazil · ELECTIONS

A Senate candidate put confidential data about a Supreme Court justice into a public election file. The justice wants answers.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin is seeking answers over confidential data about him. A Senate candidate placed it in a public election file.

Who the Two Men Are

Cristiano Zanin is a justice on Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court, known by its Portuguese initials STF. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appointed him in 2023, after Zanin had spent years as Lula’s personal lawyer.

Deltan Dallagnol is a former federal prosecutor. He became known nationally as the public face of Operation Car Wash.

That sprawling corruption inquiry jailed business executives and politicians over the past decade. It also uncovered bribery at Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company.

Dallagnol is running for the small, free-market Novo party. He has cast himself as a corruption fighter facing what he calls unfair political persecution.

What Dallagnol Confidential Datad

Dallagnol is now running for the Senate in Paraná state, on the Novo party ticket with ballot number 300. His campaign team attached documents to his official candidacy filing to argue he remains eligible to run.

Those documents included fiscal and banking records belonging to Zanin and relatives, CartaCapital reported on 5 September 2026. The relatives named in that report were Zanin’s wife, father-in-law and sister-in-law.

Candidacy filings in Brazil are public by law, posted on the electoral court’s online portal. The records were briefly visible there before officials removed them, CartaCapital reported.

Where the Records Came From

The financial records date to 2019. A judge in Rio de Janeiro then ordered banks and tax authorities to break the family’s confidentiality, CartaCapital reported.

That order came during a separate, unrelated investigation into alleged misuse of public funds. Brazil’s tax authority later found no undeclared accounts or suspicious transactions, the same report said.

Courts subsequently found that original secrecy breach had not been properly justified, Ubiratã Online reported on 5 September 2026. Dallagnol’s team gave a different origin story, however.

They said it came from a 2021 complaint Zanin filed against him at the CNMP, a council that oversees prosecutors’ conduct. They gave that complaint’s paperwork to the electoral court, to prove his eligibility.

They “never intended to expose” Zanin’s data, CartaCapital quoted them as saying.

Zanin’s Response

Zanin sent a letter to Paraná’s regional electoral court, known as the TRE-PR, on 5 September 2026. He asked for measures to fix what he called a likely illegality, Amplo Jurídico reported.

He sought accountability for those involved, “including possible criminal sanctions,” CartaCapital reported. He also notified leaders of Brazil’s top electoral court, the TSE, and his own Supreme Court, several outlets said.

The TRE-PR judge overseeing Dallagnol’s registration then ordered the exposed documents confidential again, CartaCapital reported. Brazil’s tax-secrecy rules generally bar anyone from disclosing a person’s financial records without legal authorization.

No court has yet ruled on Zanin’s request, and nobody has been charged with a crime over the confidential data’s release. Zanin’s office had not detailed which specific law it believes was broken, as of 6 September 2026.

Dallagnol’s Eligibility Fight

Dallagnol has fought to hold office since 2023. That year, Brazil’s top electoral court removed him from a congressional seat he had won in 2022.

Judges ruled he had resigned his prosecutor job to dodge a disciplinary case. That made him ineligible under Brazil’s “clean record” election law at the time.

He argues that reasoning no longer applies to his Senate bid. He told G1 on 2 September 2026 that he is “elegível,” or eligible.

The old disqualification “não se sustenta mais,” he added — it no longer holds up.

His candidacy was listed as “awaiting judgment” in the official electoral registry in early September 2026. Electoral judges have not yet ruled on whether he can appear on the October ballot.

Brazil’s “clean record” law, known locally as Ficha Limpa, bars candidates found guilty of certain misconduct from running for eight years. Dallagnol’s lawyers argue the rule was wrongly applied to his 2022 case in the first place.

Confidential Data in the Campaign

Dallagnol has also faced separate scrutiny over party money, unrelated to the confidential data dispute. His family’s consulting firm received R$382,000 (US$74,800) from the Novo party’s fund in 2025.

Folha de S.Paulo’s Painel column reported this on 10 July 2026, citing filings with the TSE. The party described the payment as compensation for Dallagnol’s work recruiting new members as a “national ambassador.”

Critics noted Dallagnol has publicly criticized how rival parties spend their own funds. The Rio Times could not confirm separate figures for campaign-fund money tied specifically to his 2026 Senate run.

Brazil funds election campaigns through two public pools. One is an “electoral fund” split among parties nationally, and the other is each party’s own “party fund.”

Both come from taxpayer money and public lottery revenue.

Where Things Stand

Separately, a Datafolha poll found Brazilian voters unusually settled on their choices this year. Fieldwork ran from 1 to 2 September 2026, covering 2,002 people aged 16 and over.

Datafolha reported the results on 3 September 2026, with a margin of error of two percentage points. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they felt more decided about their vote than in the 2022 election.

Separately, 71 percent said they had fully made up their minds, while 28 percent said they could still change. That poll covers the presidential race broadly and says nothing about Dallagnol’s Senate bid.

Both Zanin’s request and Dallagnol’s registration case remain open at Brazil’s electoral courts. Neither the TRE-PR nor the TSE has set a hearing date for a final ruling.

Brazilians vote for president, governors, senators and members of Congress on 4 October 2026. Paraná will fill two of its three Senate seats that day.

More: Brazil news, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Deltan Dallagnol do?

He included confidential data about Justice Zanin in his Senate candidate registration file. The exact data is not known.

Why was Dallagnol disqualified before?

In 2022, the TSE removed him from a congressional seat. He had resigned from his prosecutor job to avoid discipline.

What is the TSE?

The TSE is Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. It handles election disputes and candidate registrations.

Is Dallagnol still running for Senate?

Yes, his registration is awaiting judgment. He says he is eligible and the old reason no longer applies.

Sources: CartaCapital; Ubiratã Online; Amplo Jurídico; G1; Folha de S.Paulo; Datafolha; TSE; TRE-PR.