U.S. Legislators Question American Collaboration with Lava Jato

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Tuesday, August 20th, 2019, members of the Democratic Party sent a letter to the Department of Justice of the United States questioning the collaboration of the U.S. with the Brazilian Ministry of Justice because of possible abuses of Operation Lava Jato.

In the document that was addressed to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the twelve congress members say they are concerned about the involvement of the Department of Justice in recent Brazilian legal proceedings that have generated significant controversy and may destabilize democracy in the country.

According to the letter obtained by Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, agents of the U.S. Department of Justice were helping prosecutors of Operation Lava Jato. Despite having revealed a vast corruption scheme involving Brazilian politicians and the private sector, there are numerous indications that irregularities and biases have corrupted the operation.

The text highlights that the Department of Justice has always played an important role in combating transnational crime, offering technical cooperation, training, and information sharing to judicial systems around the globe.

But “we want to ensure that the activities of the Department of Justice do not support any kind of misconduct by judicial agents in Brazil or help legal proceedings that violate basic legal ethics.”

The Brazilian Ministry of Justice had not commented on the letter by the time of publication of the report by Folha.

The letter directly refers to the reports published from the private messages of members of the Operation Lava Jato task force using the Telegram app, obtained through The Intercept Brazil website and broadcast in partnership with other communication vehicles including Folha.

The messages obtained by the Intercept and published so far revealed that the Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, previously a federal judge, indicated to prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, head of the task force, a witness who could contribute to the investigation about former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The former judge, according to the messages, also instructed Deltan to include evidence against a Lava Jato defendant in a complaint that had already been offered by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and suggested the prosecutor change the order of phases of the operation to anticipate at least one judicial decision.

These reports seem to confirm that the actions of judge Moro and the Lava Jato prosecutors were politically motivated and intended to undermine the electoral prospects of the Workers Party (PT). Strategic collaboration between judges and prosecutors in politically motivated judicial activities are violations of basic judicial ethics.

The authors of the letter state that they are usually reluctant to meddle in legal proceedings in other countries, but they affirmed that “these proceedings become our business when our government directly or indirectly supports them”.

Among the questions sent to the Department of Justice are:

• • “Describe the Department of Justice’s involvement in Operation Lava Jato. What led the department to act on this operation specifically?”
  • “What kind of support has the Department of Justice offered, or still offers, to the judicial agents involved in the operation?”
  • “Describe the Department of Justice’s involvement with Judge Sergio Moro, including all technical support, information sharing, and support provided by department contractors.”
  • “Have agents of the Department of Justice communicated with judge Moro, his staff or others involved in Operation Lava Jato through unofficial channels?”

Signatories of the letter are Democratic Representatives Hank Johnson, Raul Grijalva, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Jared Huffman, Susan Wild, Adriano Espaillat, Veronica Escobar, Deb Haaland, Mark Pocan, Ilhan Omar, Jesus G. “Chuy” Garcia, Emanuel Cleaver II, and Ro Khanna.