Alexandre de Moraes, minister of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF), allegedly ordered the informal preparation of a Brazilian electoral tribunal report and later used it to support his own ruling against supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Report Published by a Brazilian left-wing newspaper Sao Paulo State on tuesday.
In addition to being a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Mr. de Moraes served as president of the High Electoral Court (TSE) from August 2022 to June 2024. inquiry Since 2019, they have been protesting against people who are allegedly spreading fake news. another The investigation is set to investigate so-called “anti-democratic digital militias” that spread “fake news” and “threaten democracy” in Brazil.
A self-described “anti-fake news” campaigner, de Moraes has used the two investigations to spearhead a sweeping censorship campaign against Brazilian citizens, journalists and politicians who support former conservative President Jair Bolsonaro.
De Moraes said The 2023 investigation into “fake news” will end “once it is completed.”
The STF minister was at the forefront of the censorship campaign against Bolsonaro during the 2022 presidential election. Force He called on his campaign to refrain from calling then far-left candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a “thief” or a “criminal,” in reference to his multiple convictions on corruption charges. Bolsonaro and His Family Governor de Moraes is the subject of a police investigation. Prohibited Bolsonaro was banned from running for president for eight years after raising concerns about the security of Brazil’s elections.
Former president also open probe and Indictment As a result, De Moraes was forced to surrender his passport and was effectively trapped in Brazil.
Forha According to the report, the newspaper had access to more than six gigabytes of messages and files exchanged between Airton Vieira, Moraes’s key adviser at the STF, Moraes’ assistant and Eduardo Tagliaferro, a criminal expert who served as the TSE’s special adviser on “countering disinformation.” Arrested He faces a domestic violence indictment in 2023.
According to the message, Forhashows that Airton Vieira informally asked the TSE’s counter-disinformation unit to prepare reports against Bolsonaro’s allies and supporters, which were then used to inform De Moraes’ STF “fake news” investigations into targeted individuals.
The messages were allegedly exchanged between the parties between August 2022 and May 2023, i.e. during and after Brazil’s 2022 presidential election campaign.
Among the messages, the paper claimed to have found at least “24” informal and irregular requests made by De Moraes’s office to the STF, some of which De Moraes used to support “criminal measures” against supporters of the former president, such as revoking passports, blocking social media accounts and ordering testimony before Brazil’s Federal Police.
In either case, there was no official information indicating that the reports were prepared at the request of De Moraes or his office at the STF, the paper said. Forha The lawsuit was allegedly brought either by “order” of the TSE Assistant Judge or through an “anonymous complaint.”
Forha The newspaper maintained that none of the messages it reviewed were obtained through hacking or other illegal means, but were provided by an anonymous source who had access to the mobile phones on which the messages were stored.
The STF’s Alexandre de Moraes office appeared to respond to the report: statement A statement released on Tuesday night insisted that all investigations carried out under the “fake news” and “digital militia” investigations were “formal, routine and properly documented” with the knowledge and “full participation” of the attorney general’s office.
Following the release of the report, Brazilian senators and politicians who support former President Jair Bolsonaro Calls The lawmakers calling for Alexandre de Moraes’ impeachment said the actions alleged in the report were “anti-democratic.” Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was among the politicians who called for the STF minister’s impeachment.
“We must revoke all of these actions by the TSE. [former] president [Bolsonaro]”I welcome the removal of the president by Alexandre de Moraes, his impeachment and the end of the fake news investigation,” President Eduardo Bolsonaro said in a social media broadcast.
In addition to impeachment, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, another son of the former president, called for the dismissal of all cases involving Jair Bolsonaro de Moraes, saying that Mr. de Moraes “must be held accountable for the attack on democracy” and that the information in the report “clearly demonstrates his propensity to condemn him.”
Brazilian Senator Damares Alves Announced A group of opposition senators announced on social media that they would submit a petition calling for de Moraes’ impeachment on Wednesday.
Please serve as Senator in impeaching Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
Temos is interested in his own manifesto and expresses his will as Senador. If I can help you, I will be the one to do it, not the one to do it in the Ministry… pic.twitter.com/sVkKwvwzXK— Damares Alves (@DamaresAlves) August 14, 2024
“More than a dozen senators have already expressed interest in signing. If even 5% of what was published today is true, I hope the minister will put his head on the pillow tonight or early this morning, think it over and submit his resignation at the crack of dawn,” Alves’ message read. “It will make things easier for everyone. It is the least the minister can do now to guarantee our democracy.”
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
