MORAESGATE: How did an endless investigation and repudiated by various Brazilian institutions ensure that a minister invaded the entire private life of a former President?
By @tupireport
Documents from the investigation that targets Jair Bolsonaro (PL), family members and his former advisors show that a series of breaches of secrecy determined by Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), exposed the routine and details of the presidential office.
An orderly break in 2021 allowed the Federal Police to access the cloud in which all the conversations of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, the former president's assistant, were stored.
The messages, which Folha had access to in part, show details of the Presidency's routine and dialogues between advisors, covering everything from commonplace issues, such as public servants' time scales and disagreements between co-workers, to topics such as considerations about Paulo's possible resignation. Guedes (Economy) for the rise in diesel prices in 2021.
From access to Mauro Cid's conversations, the PF had at least five other authorizations from Moraes to break banking, telematics and tax secrecy of at least 13 people and one company - including three Bolsonaro advisors and two former advisors. First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
In the period, the corporation pointed out signs of crimes, but said there was still doubt and so far it has not reached any conclusion, even with conversations and open accounts.
In terms of bank data, Moraes even authorized access to information from 2018 in some cases, a period prior to the Bolsonaro government – which ended in December 2022.
The series of breaches throughout 2022 fed the PF in at least three lines of investigation that target Bolsonaro and his main supporters.
The first is about an alleged scheme to embezzle funds from the Presidency through Mauro Cid and other Planalto officials at the request of Michelle Bolsonaro.
The second looks at the participation of the former assistant to the Presidency and other allies in Bolsonaro’s coup attacks, from September 7, 2021 to January 8, 2023.
Finally, the content of the messages served as an indication to support the search and seizure against the former representative, in addition to several arrests, on suspicion of fraud in the Ministry of Health's vaccination system.
Mauro Cid and Luis Marcos dos Reis (former adjutant and former adviser, respectively), Max Guilherme de Moura and Sergio Cordeiro (Bolsonaro's bodyguards), as well as Ailton Moraes Barros (military friend of the former president) were arrested.
The breaches of secrecy also show how decisions were made, speeches were assembled and even Bolsonaro's hidden meetings with other authorities were made.
On October 16, 2021, for example, Mauro Cid informed Bolsonaro's chief of staff, Célio Faria, of a new increase in the price of diesel and then commented: "PG doesn't last long", in allusion to then Minister Paulo Guedes.
The message was sent around 1pm. In the late afternoon, at 4:17 pm, Cid spoke again with Célio to inform him of the visit of the then president to Granja do Torto, Guedes' official residence during part of the government. About two hours later, Cid sent a new message and told the chief of staff: "It doesn't fall." Célio Faria replied that he already imagined this decision: “He will spread his legs”.
Five days after the meeting with Guedes, Bolsonaro announced that the government would create aid for truck drivers due to the rise in diesel prices. He said that the measure would benefit around 750,000 workers in the sector.
The breaches of telematic secrecy —Mauro Cid was the target of at least three in about two years— also show the presidential cabinet team in daily conversations, in the organization of the president's agenda, arguing among themselves over communication errors and, also, mocking government members.
On July 24, 2021, Célio Faria complains of problems in Bolsonaro's agenda due to requests that reached the Chief Executive directly. After highlighting his role in organizing the agenda, Célio complained to Cid about the president accepting the requests.
Cid, then, responds in a mocking tone: “Hahahahahahaha There's no way… At least Gilson and Seif disappeared this week”. Jorge Seif was the Secretary of Fisheries at the time. Gilson Machado, the head of Embratur. The two participated in several appointments with Bolsonaro.
The investigation carried out by the PF in conversations with Moraes' authorization was the target of criticism by Bolsonaro himself.
After Folha revealed the breach of bank secrecy and suspicious transactions between presidential officials, Bolsonaro stated in September 2022 that Mauro Cid was a person of his “confidence” and that he had access to his private life and government decisions, equally to presidents of other countries.
In response to the magistrate, the then president stated that his agenda has a degree of ultra-secret secrecy, and that the measure was taken to gain access to national information.
“Alexandre, messing with me is one thing, messing with my wife, you crossed all limits, Moraes, all limits. Are you thinking what of life? That can all and all well? Will you one day take a pen and arrest me? What goes through your head? It's cowardly," he said at the time.
CHRONOLOGY OF PF REQUESTS, PGR MANIFESTATIONS AND DECISIONS BY MORAES IN THE MAURO CID CASE:
February 17, 2022: PGR requests the archiving of inquiry 4,878, which investigates the investigation leak of the hacker attack on the TSE
May 2: Moraes asks the PF for “a detailed analysis report of all the material collected from the determination of the breach of telematic secrecy, preserving the secrecy of the information”
May 6: AGU files a regulatory grievance demanding that Moraes consider the request for the PGR to be shelved
June 3 to 17: PF sends reports to Moraes with partial analysis of data found in Mauro Cid's telematics queue
June 21: PF asks Mauro Cid, Adriano Teperino and Osmar Crivelatti to break bank secrecy, Michelle Cintia Cortes and Giselle Carneiro's advisors, as well as Rosemary Cardoso Cordeiro and Maria Graces de Moraes Braga. The two received amounts at the request of Michelle's advisors and through advisors
June 27: Moraes authorizes breaches of secrecy requested by the PF on June 21
July 1st to 22nd: PF sends new analysis reports of material found in Mauro Cid's cloud
August 1: PGR gives a favorable opinion to the AGU's appeal and lodges a regimental appeal against Moraes' decision that had broken the secrecy of Mauro Cid and other advisors of Jair and Michelle Bolsonaro.
August 8: PF calls for new breaches of bank secrecy: by Luis Marcos dos Reis, Bolsonaro's assistant, and by Irinaldo Alencar Nascimento, João Norberto Ribeiro and Luiz Antônio Goncalves de Oliveira; and also the extension of Cid breaks and other targets of the first order for period 2019 until August 2022
August 9: Moraes authorizes new breaches and extensions of secrecy surveys of Bolsonaro and Michelle advisers
August 15: PGR filed a new regimental grievance against Moraes' decisions
September 20: PF sends new analysis report of material collected from breaches of secrecy authorized by Moraes
September 26: Folha reveals the existence of the investigation, breaches of secrecy and suspicious transactions investigated by the PF at the behest of Moraes
September 27: Moraes orders the opening of an inquiry to investigate the leak of information
October 5: PF asks for new bank secrecy breaches from January 2018 to September 2022: Naya Bittencourt, Zelia Barros, Cedro Libano Comércio de Madeiras, Vanderlei Cardoso de Barros; by Murilo Ziloti, between January 2019 and September 2022; and extension of the breaks of all targets of the 1st and 2nd orders for the period from August 9 to September 30, 2022
October 7: Moraes submits, for the first time, a request for consideration by the PGR
October 17: PGR asks for the investigation to be shelved and all the evidence collected by the PF to be annulled. Moraes authorizes new breaches and does not even mention the Attorney General in his decision
December 2nd: PF asks for breach of telematic secrecy of advisor Luis Marcos dos Reis, Mauro Cid and other targets.
December 16: Moraes authorizes new breaches of secrecy
December 19: PGR filed a new regimental appeal against Moraes' decision. PF sends new analysis report of material from Mauro Cid breaches of secrecy. For the first time, suspicions of vaccination card fraud appear
January 19, 2023 : PF requests a new breach of telematic secrecy by Mauro Cid and also by Gabriela Cid and Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros
January 26: Moraes authorizes new breaches of secrecy
February 2: PGR for the first time did not file an appeal and says it was aware of Moraes' decision
February 23: PF sends Moraes factual news from the Comptroller General of the Union about possible fraud in inserting data into the vaccination system of the Ministry of Health
February 26: Moraes decides that the vaccine case is related to an ongoing investigation that investigates data from Mauro Cid and other advisors
April 6: PF asks Moraes to share audios in which Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros and other soldiers talk about a possible coup d'état with the inquiry into the January 8 attacks
April 18: PF requests search against Bolsonaro, Michelle and others and arrest of Mauro Cid and other advisors.
April 20: Moraes authorizes sharing of Ailton's audios with inquiry 4,923, from the acts of January 8 and
April 21: The position of the PGR changes completely under Lula's government. Before, it claimed that material was illegal and should be annulled, now it agrees to searches and arrests requested based on the information. Speaks out against only requests against searches for Jair Bolsonaro and Michelle
April 28: Moraes authorizes arrests and searches. Only Michelle is left out