Leaks are shaking Brazil’s democracy

Brazil’s democracy has been shaken with the leaks of cellphone chats between prosecutors in Brazil’s biggest corruption investigation and the judge who is now Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sérgio Moro. The leaks reveal close collaboration between Sérgio Moro and the prosecutors during the investigations known as Operation Car Wash(Lava Jato). It is still ongoing and has resulted in the conviction of more than 200 people including high profile executives, politicians and former presidents in Brazil and Latin America. Moro gave prosecutors strategic advice, informal tips and voiced his opinion on the selection of cases and plea-bargain negotiations - practices which are illegal.

The first records were published on June 9 by the online news site, The Intercept Brazil.

The news site continues to release parts of the archive also in partnership with one of Brazil’s biggest newspapers Folha de São Paulo and most recently the popular news magazine, Veja. Representatives of the website say it received the massive archive from an anonymous source. The leaks have dominated headlines in the Brazilian news, putting pressure on Moro who is the government’s most popular minister, for years portrayed as a hero leading the fight against corruption. He is considered by many to be a future presidential candidate and has recently been mentioned as Bolsonaro’s running mate as vice-president in 2022. The leaks are published amidst plunging approval ratings of Bolsonaro’s government.

Unwavering support

The revelations are damaging for the impartiality of Brazil’s judicial system and cast doubt on convictions in the Operation Car Wash probe. This includes the imprisonment of former president Lula in April 2018, adding weight to the long-standing critique that Lula’s fast-tracked court case was politically motivated and aimed to prevent him and the Workers’ Party from winning the presidential elections. Lula had a significant lead in all polls and had to withdraw his candidacy because of the case against him. Bolsonaro won the elections and made Moro his Minister of Justice. In addition to revealing collaboration between Moro and prosecutors, the leaks alsoshow thatthe prosecutionhad serious doubts about whether there was sufficient evidence to establish Lula’s guilt. The former president was imprisoned on allegations of receiving a beach front apartment from a construction company in return for favouring the company for public contracts (the prosecutors did not establish how the bribe had benefitted the company or put forward hard facts attesting Lula’s or his family’s ownership of the apartment).

The president and his government remain in full support of Sergio Moro: The means justify the cause. Moro has not been asked to step down while the leaks and their validity are investigated. In fact, no investigation has yet been ordered into the leaks and Moro’s conduct and court proceedings, even though the cases would have to be reviewed, if the accusations turn out to be true. By openly defending Moro, celebrating Lula’s imprisonment and attacking the Intercept and the journalist who broke the news, the leaks are becoming a political battleground in an already highly polarized political environment in Brazil.

The government’s tactic seems to be to ‘shoot the messenger’. The leaks were brought to light by Glenn Greenwald, an award-winning and Pulitzer awarded journalist, based in Brazil and one of three co-founding editors of The Intercept. In addition to ongoing intimidations of Greenwald (including threats of deportation by a member of congress), his family and The Intercept, the government's money laundering unit in the Finance Ministry has reportedly been tasked by the Federal Police – which is under Moro’s ministry – to investigate Greenwald's finances. In a statement released by UN and OAS (Organisation of American States) Special Rapporteurs for freedom of expression on July 1st, Brazil is urged: “to conduct an exhaustive, effective, and impartial investigation on the threats against the journalist and his family” and they “remind Brazilian authorities of their obligation to prevent unlawful acts, protect journalists at risk, and guarantee the right to confidentiality of sources”.

Moro himself leaked private information to the press when he was a judge, including a series of private phone calls in 2016 between Lula and then president Dilma Rousseff, that were illegally tabbed on Moro’s orders. The leaks prevented Lula from becoming a minister, which would have made it harder to prosecute him and were thus justified by Moro and his many supporters. This time around, Moro is not in favour of disclosing private messages and denies any wrong-doing. He has disqualified their importance, arguing on the one hand that they have been falsified and on the other hand that they were illegally obtained by a hacker.

Right-wing supporters took to the streets across Brazil on June 30^th to show their support of Sérgio Moro and the Operation Car Wash. The hatred towards the Worker‘s Party is deep and Moro’s role in defeating Lula and the Workers’ Party in his capacity as a judge makes him a hero to politicians and the public – even if he overstepped his role as a judge. The conservative and right-wing movement Movimento Brasil Livre joined the demonstrations despite the fact that the only revelation Moro has apologized for is that he had called his firm supporters from the movement for fools (tontos).

Still popular

The Intercept writes that the disclosure of the private messages are justified by the same principle that guided the leaks of the phone calls between Lula and president Rousseff by Moro: “that a democracy is healthier when significant actions undertaken in secret by powerful figures are revealed to the public.”

The content of the material and its reception by the government is not indicating a healthy democracy. That a judge become a minister in a far-right government after imprisoning the rival presidential candidate already was not. As the protests in favour of Moro showed, Moro’s misconduct and abuse of power is not considered a problem, nor a politicized judiciary, as long as it serves to obstruct left-leaning politicians and critical journalists.

A survey by Datafolha from July 5 show that 58 percent of the population thinks Moro’s conduct was inappropriate, but his approval rating is still at 52 percent (down from 59 percent in April). 45 percent thinks he should step down in view of the Operation Car wash leaks. Bolsonaro, however, does not want to lose his most popular minister amidst the government’s historically low approval ratings, and this survey indicates that he won’t necessarily have to. But if no measures are taken, the leaks have not just shaken Brazil’s democracy but weakened it.