Lava Jato Prosecutors Discussed Possible Supreme Court Justice Impeachment

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Prosecutors of the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba had discussed gathering data and intelligence on justice Gilmar Mendes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in an attempt to keep him away from cases and even petition for his impeachment, according to newspaper El País based on messages obtained by The Intercept Brasil website.

According to the conversations published on Tuesday, August 6th, members of the operation, including prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (head of the task force), had discussed scrutinizing the justice’s rulings and decisions to support the offensive and had planned to call in investigators from Switzerland to try to gather evidence against Gilmar Mendes.

The goal was to trace a potential link between Gilmar and Paulo Vieira de Souza, known as Paulo Preto, who is charged with being a bribery operator for the PSDB party and is currently detained in Curitiba after one of Lava Jato’s actions.

The justice reacted to the disclosure of the new messages. He said that they show “institutional delinquency” and that “it’s time for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to take action.” The justice did not clarify, however, if he was demanding any action from Federal Prosecutor General, Raquel Dodge.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (PGR), Deltan Dallagnol could not be dismissed on account of an individual decision by Dodge, but only by collegiate bodies linked to the institution. Within the scope of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, a decision of the Superior Council would be required, by majority vote, in the event of members indicted or charged in disciplinary proceedings.

In addition, the National Council of the Prosecutor’s Office, an external control body of the institution, may also determine the removal of prosecutors — the body has lodged a disciplinary complaint to investigate Deltan’s case.

According to the messages released on Tuesday, August 6th, the prosecutors’ suspicion was that Gilmar Mendes, who had already granted two release orders in favor of Paulo Preto, would show up as the beneficiary of accounts and credit cards that the operator kept in Switzerland, which was already under the scrutiny of European investigators.

When discussing the credit cards linked to Paulo Preto’s account in Switzerland, prosecutor Roberson Pozzobon remarked that one of them could have the STF Justice as beneficiary.

The conversations indicate that the discussion began because Deltan Dallagnol claimed to be aware of “a rumor” coming from the São Paulo task force that part of the money held by Paulo Preto in foreign accounts would belong to the magistrate.

To Folha de S.Paulo Gilmar said: “Anyone who demonstrates to be capable of carrying out a sordid investigation would also be able to devise a foreign account or a credit card fraudulently.”

“One can only imagine, based on this disclosed ethical standards, what these investigators did with the award-winning collaboration. As I have said, this is the greatest crisis that has befallen the legal system since re-democratization,” he said.

In the conversation group, Deltan Dallagnol said that Raquel Dodge was not willing to face Gilmar. The critique arose when Deltan defended the impeachment of the STF Justice.

In one of the messages, Deltan Dallagnol suggested searching for phone calls from Paulo Preto to the Supreme Court. “It’s worth checking PP’s [Paulo Preto] calls to STF phones,” Dallagnol said.

Days later, the prosecutors obtained a report of a task force operation indicating that former senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira had called Gilmar Mendes’ office on February, 11th 2019.

Lava Jato chatters reported that Paulo Preto claimed to have connections with Aloysio, who had always denied involvement in acts of corruption.

On February 21st of this year, in the same chat group, Pozzobon said: “I think there’s a great chance that ALOYSIO has placed GILMAR in the STF.”

Aloysio and Gilmar worked in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002), and the justice was appointed to the STF by the then president in 2002.

The Curitiba task force stated, in a note, to ignore the messages. “The material comes from cybercrime and has been used, edited or misrepresented, to support accusations and distortions that do not correspond to reality.”