translated from Spanish: Lava Jato: New messages suggest prosecutors acted to protect Sergio Moro

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on Sunday published new private messages from members of Operation Lava Jato, suggesting that prosecutors acted to prevent tensions between the former judge and current justice minister Sergio Moro, and the Supreme Court will halt investigations.
Folha and The Intercept Brasil, which had access to years-long talks between prosecutors and judges, announced an association to verify and publish a series of reports on the content of these messages, which have called into question the impartiality of operation Lava Jato, which took former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to prison (2003-2010).
According to Folha, dialogues indicate that both prosecutors and the current Justice Minister feared that then-Supreme Court Judge Federal Court Teori Zavascki, who was killed in a plane crash in 2017, would hand out investigations under the control of Moro in Curitiba (south of Brazil) at a time considered “critical”, as investigations of the corruptels of the construction company Odebrecht progressed at long paces.
Folha noted that the incident would have been caused by a mistake from the Federal Police in March 2016, when he attached to the file of an investigation some documents relating to the Odebrecht case without preserving its stealth, which led to the disclosure of the material brazilian press.
Moro – who had already been beheld by the Supreme Court for having released wiretaps from Lula, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) – sent a message to the prosecutor and coordinator of Lava Jato, Deltan Dallagnol, complaining about the police, of which he said that he couldn’t “make that kind of mistake now.”
The conversations published by Folha indicate that Moro alerted Dallagnol that, without stealth, he would have to submit to the Supreme at least one of the investigations under his umbrella and cited the case of PT publicist Joao Santana.
However, the prosecutor told him that he contacted the Office of the Attorney General of the Union and suggested that he submit another investigation, linked to Odebrecht.
Dallagnol completed that he would attempt to hasten one of the cases, which would allow it to be referred to the Supreme Court already with the defendants and their respective crimes defined in the complaint.
In another excerpt from Folha’s dialogues, Moro stated that he feared “pressures” for his conduct to be analyzed by the National Council of Justice (CNJ), to which Dallagnol responded that he will speak with the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in that Council.
The prosecutor also asked Moro to “be discouraged” and promised the then judge for unconditional support of the operation.
“Let you know that not only the vast majority of society is with you, but that we will do whatever it takes to defend you from unjust accusations,” Dallagnol said.
He further stated that this would be a moment of “exalted spirits” and that he “admires” the “serenity” with which Moro “faces bad news and trouble.”
“Keep it steady, don’t be discouraged and count on us,” the prosecutor stressed.
In response to Folha’s report, the Ministry of Justice again stated, in a note, that “the minister does not confirm the authenticity of messages obtained criminally and that they may have been edited or adulterated in whole or in part”.
“The criminal invasion of mobile phones by public authorities is under investigation by the Federal Police,” the portfolio added in the statement.
Also, before the Senate, Moro denounced last Wednesday that there is a “criminal group” that seeks to “attack” “the institutions” and above all the “fight against corruption” that he played as a judge.
The Intercept Brazil media, led by American journalist Glenn Greenwald, to whom former CIA analyst Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency (NSA) spy ingencies programs, reported last week that he will publish a series of reports about years-long talks between public officials and judges.
The talks, according to The Intercept Brazil, include strategies to change the order of the phases of Operation Lava Jato, advice and courtesy of magistrates to prosecutors, which is prohibited by law.

Original source in Spanish