STF Justice Toffoli alleges international funding for antidemocratic attacks in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Through the lifting of bank secrecy, the inquiries into antidemocratic acts and fake news in Brazil have uncovered international funding of individuals who use social networks to attack Brazilian institutions such as the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which is in charge of these investigations.

The information was announced by Justice Dias Toffoli in an interview on Sunday night, February 21st, to Canal Livre, on Band TV.

“This inquiry against fake news and antidemocratic acts has already identified international foreign funding to parties that use social networks to campaign against institutions, particularly the Supreme Court and the National Congress,” he said.

According to Toffoli, who did not provide any details, the inquiries led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes are currently digging deeper into this information, considered by Toffoli to be “very serious.”

“The country’s history has demonstrated what this has led to in the past. Funding of radical groups, be they far-right or far-left, to wreak havoc and destabilize democracy in our country,” he said.

According to O Globo, João Bernardo Barbosa, a Brazilian entrepreneur who works in Miami, Florida, is the target of investigations by the Federal Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR). He allegedly transferred R$29,000 to Allan dos Santos, of Terça Livre, and paid the blogger’s credit card bills. Barbosa denies the transfers.

The fake news inquiry was opened in 2019 as a Supreme Court reaction to growing criticism and attacks suffered on social networks. However, the investigation has been challenged from the beginning by experts and politicians for having been opened ex officio by Toffoli, the Court’s chief justice at the time, with no prompting from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

It was only in 2020, by 10 votes to 1, that the STF decided that the inquiry was lawful. The investigation targets deputies, entrepreneurs, and bloggers linked to President Jair Bolsonaro, who were subject to search and seizure orders and financial secrecy breaches.

One of the controversial points in the investigation occurred last year when Moraes stepped up the pressure on Facebook in the case of the blocking of profiles targeted by the fake news inquiry.

After the company said it would not comply with the ruling that ordered the blocking of international Bolsonarist profiles, Moraes raised the daily fine for noncompliance from R$20,000 to R$100,000 and subpoenaed the company’s CEO in Brazil.

According to experts, the fact that the Justice has jurisdiction to decide on a particular case does not mean that the provisions of his decisions may transcend Brazilian borders.

The investigation into anti-democratic rallies, on the other hand, began in 2020 after a string of demonstrations in Brasília praised by President Jair Bolsonaro.

According to Toffoli, the information on international funding shows that those attacking the institutions are not just a “group of madmen.” “There is an organization behind this, which attacks even the traditional and serious press,” he stressed. “We must be vigilant, and the investigation is in excellent hands.”

Toffoli advocated the investigations as a safeguard to Brazilian democracy and recalled that the Supreme Court received the support of several organizations representing society, including leaders of political parties, with the exception of the PSL.

“At that moment it was not only the Supreme Court that was concerned, but the whole of society.” According to him, the justice system is attentive to antidemocratic acts and is working to prevent “the serpent’s egg from hatching again.”

During the interview, Toffoli detailed the reasons that led to the arrest of federal deputy Daniel Silveira after the release of a video, published on Tuesday, February 16th, in which the deputy attacks Supreme Court justices.

Toffoli recalled that the deputy was under investigation for fake news and, when he testified to the Federal Police, he said he was sorry and that he would never say anything like that again.

“The demonstration that led him to prison was not his first,” said the justice. “He portrays himself as someone who repents when under investigation and then repeats it later, more seriously.”

According to Toffoli, Silveira abused the congressional privilege of inviolability of opinion. The justice said that evidence of this is that 364 deputies voted in favor of upholding his arrest.

The justice said that it is not possible to say, for the moment, if there is a link between international funding and the imprisoned deputy. However, without naming names, he recalled that there are people under investigation who have left Brazil and said that their ability to remain in other countries is something that arouses interest.