New Lava Jato Leaks Show Dallagnol Manipulated Hesitant Appellate Court Judge

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – New Telegram messages involving prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol and other members of Lava Jato were released today by Veja magazine in partnership with The Intercept Brasil website.

In one of the messages, the coordinator of the task force of the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) says he talked about a case with the appellate court rapporteur of the operation’s cases, judge João Pedro Gebran Neto, of the TRF-4 (4th Regional Federal Court).

Dallagnol acted as prosecutor in Lava Jato lower court cases, while Gebran was responsible for reporting and judging (along with two other judges) lawsuits upon appeal.

According to the conversations published by Veja, the coordinator spoke in 2017 with the regional prosecutor Carlos Augusto da Silva Cazarré, who works in the MPF, about the judgment of an appeal by Adir Assad — a bribes operator in Petrobras schemes — a defendant who was convicted in 2015 by then judge Sérgio Moro.

The conversation demonstrates Dallagnol’s concern with the possibility of Gebran acquitting the convict in the TRF-4. “Gebran is taking the vote and finds evidence of authorship implicating Assad weak,” Deltan wrote.

At the time, Assad was negotiating a settlement with the MPF. If acquitted, Lava Jato feared that he would interrupt the negotiations. Therefore, in the messages, Deltan discusses eventually “asking to postpone the agreement as long as possible to ensure the upholding of the conviction.”

In a message to Cazarré, Dallagnol mentioned that he had had two conversations with Gebran “in fortuitous meetings.” “And he [the judge] expressed concern about the evidence of Assad’s involvement,” he commented to his fellow prosecutor.

Gebran, however, ultimately confirmed the conviction imposed by the then federal judge Sérgio Moro, currently Minister of Justice. The appellate court judge, in his decision, used statements from whistleblowers that had not been used in the lower court judgment.

Weeks after the TRF-4 trial, Assad signed a cooperation agreement with the MPF.