Sérgio Moro Resigns from Ministry of Justice, Abandons Bolsonaro’s Government

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Sérgio Moro, the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, announced his resignation on Friday, April 24th. The former federal judge stepped down after a year and four months in President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet.

His resignation was prompted by Bolsonaro’s decision to replace the Director-General of the Federal Police (PF), Maurício Valeixo, who had been appointed to the post by Moro, who had worked with him when he was a judge. The Federal Police is subordinate to the Justice ministry.

With Moro’s resignation, this is the ninth time a Minister has left office in the Bolsonaro government – six of them left the government and three were shunted into other posts (Onyx Lorenzoni left the Ministry of State and switched to Citizenship; Floriano Peixoto stepped down from the General Secretariat and is now president of the Correios, and Gustavo Canuto left Regional Development and is now the president of DATAPREV).

Summary

In brief, Moro stated in his farewell address that:

• He was surprised by the announcement in the Federal Gazette of the Federal Police Director-General’s dismissal;
• President Jair Bolsonaro failed to provide a specific cause for dismissing Mauricio Valeixo;
• Valeixo’s dismissal was not by his own request, as published in the Federal Gazette, and neither did he, Moro, sign off on his dismissal, although the name of the Minister is featured in the notice;
• Bolsonaro conceded that the switch was motivated because he intends to have someone in the Federal Police who will report to him on ongoing investigations and inquiries at the Federal Supreme Court; according to Moro, that is not the Federal Police’s responsibility;
• When he took office as Minister, after 22 years as a magistrate, Bolsonaro had promised him “carte blanche” to select and appoint assistants.

Unfounded

When Moro announced his resignation in a statement on Friday morning at the Ministry of Justice, he said that he had told Bolsonaro that he was not opposed to the change of command in the PF, provided that the President would offer him a reason for such a change.

“President, I don’t have any problem in changing directors, but I need a motive, [such as] a serious mistake,” Moro said.

Moro further said the issue is not the change in itself, but the reason for Bolsonaro’s action. Bolsonaro intends to “gather” information from within the PF, such as intelligence reports, according to the now ex-Minister.

“The President explicitly told me more than once that he wanted to have someone of his personal contacts, that he could call, from whom he could gather information, gather intelligence reports, be it a director or a superintendent. And it’s not actually the role of the Federal Police to provide that kind of information,” he said.

Moro compared this situation to the time he conducted the Lava Jato Operation proceedings as a judge:

“Imagine if during Lava Jato, a minister, a director-general, a president, the then President Rousseff, the ex-president, would keep calling the superintendent in Curitiba to gather information about ongoing investigations?”

According to Sérgio Moro, the Federal Police’s independence “is a fundamental principle that we must preserve within the rule of law”.

According to Moro’s account, he told Bolsonaro that the change in command of the PF would be political interference in the corporation. The now ex-Minister said the President conceded this.

“I told the president it would be political interference. He said it would,” Moro said.

Moro stated that Bolsonaro has been seeking a change of command in the PF since last year. “From the second semester [of 2019] there was pressure from the President to change the PF command.”

Moro said he is leaving the Ministry to preserve his own history and not to disprove his commitment to Bolsonaro: that the government would be firm in fighting corruption.

“I must preserve my own history, but above all, I must preserve my commitment with the President that we would be firm in the fight against corruption, the PF’s independence against political interference,” he said.

‘I have not signed any dismissal’

Moro further stated that contrary to what has been published in the Federal Gazette, he did not sign Valeixo’s dismissal, nor did the PF’s Director-General ask for his resignation.

In the publication, the then Minister’s signature and the information that Valeixo left “on request” are included. “I did not sign this decree and at no time did the PF’s director submit an official resignation request,” he said.

According to Moro, the Presidency’s Secretariat of Communication (SECOM) lied by stating on social media that the dismissal had occurred “upon request”. “The fact is that no request has been formally made. Honestly, I was surprised, I felt it was offensive. I later saw that the SECOM confirmed that the dismissal was made upon request, but this is not true,” he said.

He also said that this proved that Bolsonaro wanted him out of the government. “In my opinion, this latest event is an indication that the president really wants me out of office.”

“The President also advised me that he was concerned about ongoing inquiries at the Federal Supreme Court and that the change in the Federal Police would also be timely for that reason. It’s also not a reason that justifies the change, it’s actually something that generates great concern,” Moro said.

‘Carte blanche’

Moro also said that when he was invited by Bolsonaro to the Ministry, the President gave him “carte blanche” to name anyone he wished, even for the command of the Federal Police.

“I was promised carte blanche at the time to appoint all advisors, including those in police departments such as the Federal Highway Police and Federal Police,” said the now ex-Minister.

In the announcement, Moro was moved and his voice was shaken. It was when he said he had asked the President for only one requirement to take office: that his family would receive a pension in case something serious happened to him while he was in office.

“There was only one condition I asked for. I wasn’t going to disclose it, but now it doesn’t matter anymore. I said that as I was leaving the judiciary, I contributed for 22 years, I asked that if something were to happen to me, that my family wouldn’t be left helpless,” Moro said.

Dismissal of the PF director

Moro was announced as Bolsonaro’s minister in November 2018, shortly after the presidential election. The magistrate became known as a judge in cases involving the Lava Jato Operation, among them the ruling against ex-president Lula in the Guarujá triplex case.

At the time, Bolsonaro granted Moro independence in choosing second and third level posts. The Minister would have “carte blanche” in the fight against corruption.

“We talked for about 40 minutes and he [Moro] explained what he intends to do if he becomes Minister and I agreed with 100 percent of what he proposed. He wanted total freedom to fight corruption and organized crime, and a cabinet with the power to do so,” Bolsonaro said at the time.

“It is a major Ministry and it was very clear in a conversation between us that anyone who may come on the police news will be investigated and will not be subject to any interference from me,” Bolsonaro added.

Interference

After the government’s inception, Moro and Bolsonaro’s relationship was marked by instances of interference by the President in the Ministry. Bolsonaro even said that he had the power of veto in the cabinets, because “he is in charge” of the government.

One of such incidents occurred in February 2018, when Moro, after Bolsonaro’s complaint, revoked the appointment of Ilona Szabó to the National Council of Criminal and Prison Policy.

A political scientist with a master’s degree in conflict and peace studies from the University of Uppsala (Sweden) and founder of the Igarapé Institute, Ilona Szabó worked for the NGO Viva Rio and was one of the coordinators of the national disarmament campaign.

Bolsonaro favors easing the population’s access to weapons and ignored suggestions made by the Minister of Justice regarding the weapons decree.

Valeixo

The Federal Police situation has also affected Bolsonaro’s relationship with Moro. Since last year, the President has been trying to remove Valeixo from office.

A career delegate, Valeixo was a Federal Police superintendent in Paraná and worked in Lava Jato. His experience led him to be chosen by Moro to head the PF.

Moro’s freedom to choose Valeixo and PF regional superintendents was gradually undermined. In August 2018, unbeknownst to the Federal Police leadership, Bolsonaro announced the change of the Rio de Janeiro superintendent.

The announcement led to the threat of resignations from the Federal Police. The change in the superintendency took place, but Moro and Valeixo remained in their posts.

COAF

The relationship between the Minister and the President was also shaken by the fact that Moro asked the President of the Supreme Court (STF), Dias Toffoli, to review a decision that restricted the sharing of COAF reports with the prosecutor’s offices and the Federal Police.

The Minister’s move angered President Jair Bolsonaro, as the injunction was in response to a motion from Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s defense, the president’s son.

A COAF report pointed to unusual transactions by Fabrício Queiroz, Flávio Bolsonaro’s former advisor to the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro. The defense argued that data on these transactions were passed on to the Prosecutor’s Office absent judicial authorization.

In the COAF case, the transfer of the body to the Central Bank led to the downfall of one of Moro’s main allies in Lava Jato, auditor Roberto Leonel, who was dismissed from the body’s command.

Coronavirus

With the novel coronavirus pandemic, Moro and Bolsonaro showed further evidence of disagreement. Moro advocated isolation in public speeches as a means of trying to curb contagion, more in line with what former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said.

Bolsonaro, on the other hand, spoke of isolating only the elderly and people with chronic conditions. He preaches the return of trade, the return to school, and the reopening of borders with Uruguay and Paraguay.

Supreme Court

Regarded by political analysts as a potential candidate for the Planalto in 2022, since being chosen to head the Justice portfolio, Moro featured as a potential candidate by Bolsonaro for the two positions in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to become vacant with the retirement of Justices Celso de Mello and Marco Aurélio Mello.

Bolsonaro used to praise Moro’s profile but also stated his wish to appoint a “terribly evangelical” justice to the Court.

Profile

Born in 1972 in Maringá, northern Paraná, Moro gained prominence as a judge of the 13th Federal Criminal Court of Curitiba – specializing in financial crimes and money laundering.

He became known nationally as the judge in charge of Lava Jato prosecutions.

Before the operation, Moro worked on the Banestado case and served as an assistant to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Rosa Weber, in 2012, in the PT’s (worker’s Party) ‘Mensalão‘ case.

Operation Lava Jato, which was launched on March 17th, 2014, kicked off with the investigation of money laundering at a gas station and led to criminal fraud, corruption, and money laundering scheme at Petrobras. Subsequently, the lawsuit affected other state-owned companies.

In over four years of Lava Jato, the magistrate ruled on 46 lawsuits, which convicted 140 people of crimes such as corruption, money laundering, and criminal organization.

Among the convicted politicians are ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and former Deputy Eduardo Cunha (MDB – Brazilian Democratic Movement).

Moneylenders, ex-directors of Petrobras, and entrepreneurs linked to major contractors in the country have also been convicted by Moro.

Source: G1