The messages show that Dallagnol took on at least once the role of interlocutor between Moro and Fux, while the federal judge was acting in tune with the two.

A new leaked conversation between chief prosecutor of the Car Wash (Lava Jato) task force, Deltan Dallagnol and current Supreme Justice Minister, Sergio Moro, allegedly show that Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge Luiz Fux was also part of the scheme against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The leak was made by The Intercept Brazil’s executive editor, Leandro Demori, during an interview on Wednesday. The messages show that Dallagnol took on at least once the role of interlocutor between Moro and Fux, while the federal judge was acting in tune with the two.

"Fux told us to count on him for whatever we need one more time, and he just needed to call me to go to his house," Dallagnol wrote in the Car Wash Telegram chat group. Then copied the same message, according to The Intercept, and forward it to Moro, who replied, "Excellent, in Fux we trust."

Fux is responsible for the ruling that prevented former president Lula from giving interviews, as well as denying the habeas corpus to the Workers’ Party (PT) when the defense appealed to the Supreme Court.

All this comes as Brazil now is facing a political earthquake as The Intercept Brazil published on Sunday an extensive and hard-hitting exposé on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash against Lula, and unethical involvement of current Supreme Minister of Justice, Moro.

The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro that the “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his party. As well as the lack of hard and documented evidence to establish a case against the former head of state. </s> Under the Brazilian judicial system, the judge and the prosecution are required to operate independently to ensure a fair trial. Yet Moro interfered directly on the case by dictating the prosecutors’ media strategy.

A new leaked conversation by The Intercept shows current Supreme Justice Minister Sergio Moro while serving as a judge in the Car Wash (Lava Jato), directed the prosecutors’ media strategy against former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“The defense already put on their little show,” Moro quickly messaged a senior prosecutor in the Operation Car Wash task force, Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, right after questioning Lula for more than five hours, bracing for media’s take on the hearing.

Under the Brazilian judicial system, the judge and the prosecution are required to operate independently to ensure a fair trial. Yet Moro interfered directly on the case by dictating the prosecutors’ media strategy.

“Maybe, tomorrow, you should prepare a press release explaining the contradictions between his testimony and the rest of the evidence or with his previous testimony,” he ordered Dos Santos.

Immediately the prosecutor messaged his media team suggesting a dramatic shift in the team’s typical communications strategy. Up until that point, they had not commented publicly on the trial proceedings. As the press aides advise against, the chief prosecutor of the Car Wash task force, Deltan Dallagnol, comes in to support the plan.

The next day all major Brazilian news outlet copied the exact statement pushing Moro’s agenda to the public about the alleged "contradictions" in Lula's answers.

Another leak revealed on Tuesday, Moro chats with Dallagnol trying to prevent the task force from investigating right-wing former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, while ignoring evidence that his foundation collected bribes from Odebrecht's subsidiary Braskem. The then-judge asks about the “seriousness” of investigations by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) regarding the former head of state, telling Dallagnol he doesn’t want to "spoil someone whose support is important."

All this comes as Brazil now is facing a political earthquake as The Intercept Brazil published on Sunday an extensive and hard-hitting exposé on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash against Lula, and unethical involvement of current Supreme Minister of Justice, Moro.

The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro that the “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his party. As well as the lack of hard and documented evidence to establish a case against the former head of state. </s> Four congressional commissions asked Sergio Moro to explain details from a scandal that is involving more people each time.

The Lower House summoned Justice Minister Sergio Moro to a hearing on June 26 to testify about The Intercept-leaked audios, in which he and Attorney General Deltan Dallagnol coordinated a joint action to prevent former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in the 2018 presidential elections.

"The minister is haunted by the Intercept revelations and even more so to come. He must, after all, be remembering much of everything he did," Marcio Jerry, a congressman from the Communist Party (PCdoB), said.

The Human Rights and Minority Commission (CDHM), the Labor, Administration and Public Service Committee (CTASP) and the Financial Control Committee (CFFC) decided to hold a single joint hearing at the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJC).

The information disclosed by The Intercept shows that the then acting federal judge Moro advised prosecutors in several phases of the "Car Wash" case, which was an illegal interference that led to a ban on Lula's candidacy to while remaining in prison and boosted Jair Bolsonaro's chances at winning the presidency.

"Moro was jeered by the crowd at the stadium but the media did not show it."

The Supreme Justice Court vice president Luiz Fux also came under fire Wednesday when new revelation showed that he was involved in the scandal, calling into question the fairness of the trial behind Lula's conviction.

The Intercept Brazil director Leandro Demory revealed Monday that Judge Fuxhad supported Dallagnol and Moro in their actions.

At a private conversation, Dallagnol says, "he said that we should count on him for what we need, once again," to which Moro replied, "Excellent. In Fux we trust".

According to The Intercept, Moro suggested that the prosecutors of Car Wash case change the order of the phases of the operation and other procedures that supposed to be prohibited by law.

The confidential information disclosed have caused a stir in Brazil and led the defense of Lula to reiterate that the leftist politician is a victim of political persecution, prompting them to demand that the trial against him should be declared void.​​​​​​​

In 2017, Moro handed out a sentence of to nine years and six months in prison to Lula for corruption, arguing that he had received a beach apartment in exchange for political favors to the Odebrecht construction multinational company.

"The head of the Car Wash case was no one else than Moro. Dallagnol was a fool. It's proven," Supreme Justice Gilmar Mendes said and added that Moro and Dallagnol committed a crime.

"Simulating a complaint is not just an ethical fault. That's a crime."

While the Brazilians could not get out of their astonishment at The Intercept leaks, Minister Moro and President Bolsonaro met at the Alvorada Palace Tuesday and were later seen together at a military ceremony and at a soccer game in Brasilia on Wednesday night.​​​​​​ in a show of solidarity.

When asked if Bolsonaro still trusts Moro, presidential spokesperson Otavio Rego Barros said that "all the ministers of President Jair Bolsonaro's administration have the confidence of the executive branch head."​​​​​​​ </s> Brazil’s supreme court has been dragged into the crisis that has called into question the behaviour of the former judge and federal prosecutors in charge of the country’s historic Car Wash anti-corruption investigation.

According to the latest leak by the Intercept website, lead Car Wash prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol apparently communicated with supreme court justice Luiz Fux during 2016 about the probe’s progress, with Mr Fux offering it his support. Mr Dallagnol related this offer in a conversation over a messaging app to then federal judge Sérgio Moro, who at the time oversaw Car Wash cases and is now the country’s justice minister.

The conversation with Mr Fux appears to refer to preserving the investigation from any attempt to undermine or end it by the new government installed following the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff in May 2016. Various ministers in the administration of her successor, Michel Temer, were determined to neuter the investigation which exposed the vast extent of corruption by Brazil’s political class.

Mr Moro responded: “Excellent. In Fux we trust.” The justice minister has not yet commented on the leak.

Added to the conversations between Mr Moro and Mr Dallagnol leaked at the weekend these latest revelations appear to provide further evidence of back-channel communication and possible collusion between Car Wash prosecutors and federal judges. Under Brazil’s legal system, judges are meant to be strictly impartial though jurists admit informal contacts between them and prosecutors are common.

Mr Moro and Mr Dallagnol have denied any wrongdoing and Car Wash supporters have sought instead to focus on the Intercept’s source. Police believe a number of judges and prosecutors were targeted by a wide-ranging hacking operation.

But critics of Car Wash, among them the defence of former former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, convicted in the first of nine corruption cases he faces by Mr Moro in 2017, say the leaks prove the investigation’s illegality and are demanding his release from jail.

What will President Bolsonaro do?

President Jair Bolsonaro has expressed his continuing support for his embattled justice minister, telling reporters on Thursday: “What he did has no price . . . He showed the viscera of power, the promiscuity of power operating through corruption.”

In the latest leak which was first revealed on Wednesday night Mr Dallagnol also relates how Mr Fux told him of an “arm wrestle” between his court colleague Teori Zavascki and then judge Moro which left the supreme court justice “burnt”.

This seems to refer to Mr Moro’s illegal release of a phone tap of a conversation between then-president Rousseff and Lula in March 2016.

The recording indicated that Ms Rousseff’s plan to appoint Lula as her cabinet chief was not about attempting to salvage her disintegrating administration, but to provide her predecessor with immunity from possible arrest by Mr Moro.

The release of the conversation caused a furore and squashed the effort to bring Lula into cabinet. Mr Zavascki reprimanded the junior judge over his handling of the recordings, but Mr Moro managed to hold on to the Car Wash investigation. </s> Former judge argues messages leaked by investigative journalists are illegal and should not be taken into account.

Brazil's Justice and Public Security Minister Sergio Moro testified Wednesday in front of the Senate in Brasilia to try to discredit information revealed by The Intercept that shows the former federal judge advised prosecutors and illegally interfered in the case against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"Obviously I have nothing to hide. The idea was to come here to clarify about sensationalism being created about this news," Moro said at the beginning of his appearance before the Senate Wednesday morning. Moro did not categorically deny authenticity of the information leaked to The Intercept, but argued it could have been altered.

On June 9, The Intercept disclosed private telegram conversations between Judge Moro and Deltan Dallagnol, the main state prosecutor of the Car Wash corruption scandal showing that the two colluded to convict Lula on bribery charges. Moro later had the Workers' Party leader thrown in jail without due process in April 2018.

The evidence against Moro, released in a three-part series by The Intercept, showed Moro went to great lengths to prevent imprison Lula and prevent him from running in the 2018 presidential elections.

“Over the course of more than two years, Moro suggested to the prosecutor that his team change the sequence of who they would investigate; insisted on less downtime between raids; gave strategic advice and informal tips; provided the prosecutors with advance knowledge of his decisions; offered constructive criticism of prosecutorial filings; and even scolded Dallagnol ... as if the prosecutor worked for the judge,” the report reads of Moro who presided over the Lula's case and the far-reaching Car Wash corruption case.



During the Senate's Constitution and Justice Commission hearing, Minister Moro said that even if the telegram messages were true, they didn't indicate he had violated any laws.

"They try to create a situation of scandal, which is nonexistent in the end," declared the Justice Minister, who was appointed to the newly-created, high-power position by President Jair Bolsonaro when he entered office in January.

Moro tried to convince senators that what is really important is the "criminal invasion" of his and other authorities' cell phones with the aim to end the Car Wash investigation and weaken Brazilian institutions.

According to him, the investigative journalists' information should not be taken into account because it comes from an "organized criminal group" that might involve foreign agents.

Moro made similiar claims during Tuesday press conference when PT Senator Humberto Costa told him that he was not a victim of media sensationalism and asked him to resign because "you stripped the vote from millions of Brazilians."

The PT lawmaker said the judicial minister, while presiding over Lula's case in 2018, "changed prosecutors, directed operations, selected who should be persecuted, and broke laws and ethics codes." </s> Brazil has been rocked by allegations that a prominent judge repeatedly collaborated with prosecutors during high-profile corruption investigations – including the controversial case that imprisoned former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

According to the Intercept, Sérgio Moro gave prosecutors strategic advice, criticism and tips during the sprawling graft investigation known as Operation Car Wash that jailed hundreds of executives, politicians and middlemen.

Prosecutors also allegedly discussed strategies to block a newspaper’s attempts to interview Lula during last year’s election campaign, according to the Intercept, which published cellphone chats it said it had received from an anonymous source.

Opinion polls had indicated that Lula was likely to win the 2018 presidential poll until he was imprisoned and forced out of the race. His last-minute replacement, Fernando Haddad was beaten by the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro – who then appointed Moro as justice minister.

Lula has been imprisoned since April 2018. He was handed a nine-year prison sentence in 2017 by Moro, who ruled that he received bribes from a construction company in the shape of a seaside apartment renovated for him.

On Sunday, the Intercept published excerpts from what it described as an “enormous trove” of group chats on the encrypted phone app Telegram, along with audio, video and other documentation.

Excerpts of conversations between prosecutors on the Telegram cellphone app appear to show Deltan Dallagnol, the lead prosecutor in the Car Wash investigation, expressing doubts over the strength of the case against Lula in September 2016, four days before filing the indictment.

“It is like stopping the other team from playing. It is like they decided to play the ball alone,” said Carlos Melo, a professor of political science at the São Paulo business school Insper. “A basic principle of law is that those who accuse do not judge.”

Other messages appeared to show that during the election campaign, prosecutors schemed against a decision by a supreme court judge to allow Brazil’s Folha de S Paulo newspaper to interview Lula in jail because it could help his Workers’ party’s electoral chances.

“The judge’s relationship with prosecutors is scandalous,” said the Intercept Brasil’s executive editor, Leandro Demori. “This is illegal under Brazilian law.”

In a statement on Sunday night, Moro said the disclosures “did not show any abnormality” and that they “ignored the giant corruption scheme revealed by Operation Car Wash”.

The minister also complained about the “criminal invasion” of prosecutors’ phones.

Damori declined to discuss how the site had obtained the material, other than to say that it came from an anonymous source. He said the archive was bigger than that revealed by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to the Rio-based journalist Glenn Greenwald – who later set up the Intercept and co-wrote Sunday’s articles.

President Bolsonaro has yet to comment but his son Carlos shared a tweet noting that Greenwald’s husband is congressman David Miranda from the leftist Socialism and Freedom party.

Prosecutors said in a statement they had been subject to a “criminal act” by a hacker which had compromised their safety with “the objective of impeding the continuity of the operation”. “Many conversations, without due context, can give way to misinterpretations,” they said. </s> The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro that Lula was politically tried without real evidence.

On Sunday, Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept Brazil published an extensive and hard-hitting expose on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) task force against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the Worker’s Party (PT), as well as the unethical involvement of current Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro.

The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro the “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his Workers’ Party.

“These stories are based on a massive archive of previously undisclosed materials — including private chats, audio recordings, videos, photos, court proceedings, and other documentation — provided to us by an anonymous source. They reveal serious wrongdoing, unethical behavior, and systematic deceit about which the public, both in Brazil and internationally, has the right to know,” the journalists stated.

On the first article, The Intercept argues with evidence, that despite being portrayed in Brazil and around the world as apolitical and concerned solely with fighting corruption, the Car Wash prosecutors “plotted to prevent the Workers’ Party (PT) from winning the 2018 presidential election by blocking or weakening a pre-election interview.”

On Sept. 28, 2018, after Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski authorized that the then jailed Lula could give interviews as part of free speech rights, one of the prosecutors, Laura Tessler, warned in the chat room that “a press conference before the second round of voting could help elect Haddad,” referring to PT’s presidential candidate Fernando Haddad.

While the chief of the prosecutor task force, Deltan Dallagnol, said that they should “pray” so that the PT doesn’t return to power. In a series of ongoing conversations, the prosecutors, including Dallagnol, actively strategized on how to undermine the possible effect of the interviews or how to even stop them from happening.

Things take on a more complicated turn on the second article, in which The Intercept accuses current Minister of Justice, and then-presiding judge Sergio Moro offered strategic advice to prosecutors, passed on tips for new avenues of investigation, and weighed in on the trial in secrecy and outside the courtroom.

“Over the course of more than two years, Moro suggested to the prosecutor that his team change the sequence of who they would investigate; insisted on less downtime between raids; gave strategic advice and informal tips; provided the prosecutors with advance knowledge of his decisions; offered constructive criticism of prosecutorial filings; and even scolded Dallagnol as if the prosecutor worked for the judge,” the report reads.

These sort of conduct, if true, is unethical for a judge, who is responsible for maintaining neutrality to guarantee a fair trial, and it violates the Judiciary’s Code of Ethics for Brazil. Yet these are not new accusations, as Lula’s defense teams have stated Moro’s questionable involvement since the begin of the probe.

"Judge Moro made his bias and political motivation clear from the beginning to the end of the process," Lula's legal defense team said back in July 2017, adding that “his judgment has shamed Brazil by ignoring overwhelming evidence of innocence and succumbing to political bias whilst overseeing continual breaches of basic human rights and the legal process.”

Moro ruled against Lula and rendered him ineligible to run in the 2018 presidential election at a time when all polls showed that the former president was the clear frontrunner. This gave far-right Jair Bolsonaro a strong lead that resulted in his presidency win.

Bolsonaro then, according to many, “rewarded” Moro by creating an unprecedented powerful position now called the “super justice minister”, which has complete control over all the judicial branch, policing and social control in Brazilian society.

Finally, the report concludes with the fact that while publicly boasting about the strength of the evidence against Lula, internally the Car Wash task force doubted on the lack of hard evidence and the case built against the former president.

“They will say that we are accusing based on newspaper articles and fragile evidence … so it’d be good if this item is wrapped up tight. Apart from this item, so far I am apprehensive about the connection between Petrobras and enrichment, and after they told me I am apprehensive about the apartment story,” wrote Dallagnol in a group Telegram chat with his colleagues on September 9, 2016, four days before filing their indictment against Lula.

Lula’s trial was built on the accusation that he received about US$1.15 million in bribes. According to the Attorney General's Office, the amount would have been passed on through an luxury apartment and a payment for the storage of the company's assets between 2011 and 2016, as gifts received when he was president.

Valeska Texeira Zanin Martin, a lead lawyer in Lula's defense team, said evidence "definitely proves that Lula could not have been given a bribe." The lawyer argued that bank and real estate records proved Lula's innocence.

The three-story beach apartment couldn't have been given to Lula as a bribe, as prosecutors alleged because it is registered in the name of the company OAS with financial rights in a federal bank account. Zanin Martin said that if the company sold the apartment, the money trail would have to appear in the federal bank transactions, where records prove that Lula did not acquire the property.

Yet as ‘proof’ in an internationally mocked and criticized trial, Moro presented a PowerPoint slide filled with typos that had Lula’s name in the middle and alleged crimes circled and pointing to his name. No documentation or hard evidence was ever produced against the PT’s leader.

On Sunday night, Justice Minister Moro responded to the Intercept investigation saying that he "laments the lack of indication of the source", yet does not deny any accusation. Moreover, Moro defends that "there is no sign of any abnormality or providing directions as a magistrate, despite being taken out of context..." Meanwhile, the Car Wash task force did not refute the authenticity of the information published by The Intercept. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s justice minister on Saturday questioned the authenticity of leaked personal messages published by a news website that appear to show him when he was still a judge improperly advising prosecutors in a case against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The Intercept posted purported chats between then-judge Sergio Moro and ex-prosecutor Carlos Dos Santos Lima in which Moro offers strategy advice to the prosecutor in the corruption case against da Silva. According to the website, the conversation suggests Moro acted “as an informal coordinator” of the prosecution in the judicial process that led to da Silva’s conviction for receiving a beachfront apartment as a bribe.

The website said Moro at one point suggested the prosecutors release a statement highlighting contradictions in da Silva’s declaration.

The conviction ended da Silva’s 2018 presidential run and Moro went on to become justice minister in President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

A statement from the Justice Ministry, led by Moro, said it did not recognize the authenticity of the messages. It said the messages were leaked because of a “criminal invasion by hackers.”

It reiterated that “the supposed material must be presented to an independent authority for certification.”

Moro and prosecutors deny any wrongdoing, but the Brazilian Bar Association has called for the suspension of the minister and others pending an inquiry.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro offered words of support for his justice minister, saying Moro’s accomplishments in the sprawling Car Wash investigation have “no price.”

Launched in 2014, Car Wash has looked into billions of dollars in contracts with oil-giant Petrobras and ended the careers of some of the most prominent business and political figures in the South American nation.

In an interview recorded earlier this week in Curitibia, where da Silva has been held in a federal prison since April 7, 2018, Brazil’s former president said the leaked communications between the members of the Car Wash task force and then-judge Moro demonstrate what he has been saying all along.

“I take advantage now to tell you that I’m happy because the country is finally going to know the truth. I always said that Moro is a liar,” da Silva said.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. </s> BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian Justice Minister Sergio Moro said on Wednesday that he has nothing to hide regarding allegedly leaked personal messages with prosecutors from when he was the judge leading the bribery trial that jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Moro told a Senate committee in Brasilia that some of the messages attributed to him could have been doctored and that he suspects organized crime is behind the alleged hacking. Moro said he always acted according to the law when he was overseeing the landmark “Car Wash” corruption probe.
Several text and audio messages between Brazilian judge Sérgio Moro and lead prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol are leaked, casting doubt over the trial of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the grounds of illegal collaboration between court and prosecution. The leaks also point to interference in the 2018 elections by Operation Car Wash's task force officials.