Brazilian justice minister Sergio Moro considered releasing construction giant Odebrecht's confession to paying bribes in Venezuela to harm the country's president Nicolas Maduro, The Intercept investigative website reported on Sunday.

The report came after The Intercept last month began publishing excerpts from leaked chats with Moro, causing a scandal for the former anti-corruption judge who became attorney general under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The Intercept's most explosive report purportedly showed Moro conspiring with prosecutors in a sprawling corruption probe known as Car Wash to keep popular leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva out of the 2018 presidential race.

On Sunday, The Intercept published chats in which Moro considers whether to use information gathered about Odebrecht during the Car Wash investigation against socialist leader Maduro, who has presided over a political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"Maybe we should reveal Odebrecht's confessions about bribes in Venezuela?" Moro said to chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol via the encrypted Telegram messaging app in August 2017.

Earlier in the conversation, Dallagnol had told Moro, "There will be criticism and a price (to be paid), but it's worth exposing oneself to help the Venezuelans."

It remains unclear if the confessions were ever leaked, but Odebrecht has admitted to paying bribes across Latin America, including $98 million in Venezuela -- its biggest payoff outside Brazil.

In a statement, the prosecutor's office in the city of Curitiba, which handled some of the most publicized aspects of the probe, rejected The Intercept's report.

The office said it didn't recognize "the messages attributed to its members in recent weeks. The origin and veracity of the messages, obtained via cybercriminals, cannot be confirmed."

The corruption scandal surrounding Odebrecht, Latin America's biggest construction firm, has stretched across a dozen countries in Latin America and two in Africa, with the company implicated in handing out cash to win lucrative public contracts.

The revelations regarding Moro have led to calls for his resignation along with demonstrations in support of the justice minister.

On Sunday, DataFolha Institute of Research released a poll in which 58 percent of respondents said that Moro's decisions in the Car Wash probe should be reviewed if the claims against him are proven to be true. </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> SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s Justice Minister Sergio Moro faced intense pressure on Tuesday after leaked personal messages raised doubts about his impartiality as the judge overseeing landmark corruption cases, with an influential newspaper calling on him to resign.

Moro will appear before the Senate judiciary committee next week to explain the leaked messages, which were published on Sunday by The Intercept news website.

The report said the messages raised serious questions about Moro’s ethics as the judge who imprisoned former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on corruption charges in 2017. They include exchanges between Moro and the lead prosecutor in that case that showed Moro making suggestions about the focus, pace and sequence of investigators’ work.

Moro and the prosecutors have said that nothing released from the hack of their exchanges on the Telegram encrypted chat app indicates any wrongdoing on their part.

Leftist Lula was barred from running for the presidency last year because of Moro’s conviction. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro prevailed - and promptly named Moro as his justice minister.

The pressure on Moro and federal prosecutors is expected to increase.

The Intercept said it had received an “enormous trove” of hacked data from the mobile phones of Moro and prosecutors overseeing the “Car Wash” corruption probe. It said it had only examined a tiny fraction of the material it has in hand and has promised to publish more articles soon.

The website was co-founded by Glenn Greenwald, a U.S. journalist who made headlines around the world with stories in 2013 and 2014 on U.S. electronic spying, based on classified information leaked by Edward Snowden.

An editorial in the Estado de S.Paulo, the most conservative of Brazil’s three largest newspapers, argued that Moro clearly needs to step down from his post.

The leaked messages were “inappropriate and possibly illegal,” the paper wrote.

“It would be best if the minister resigned and the prosecutors removed from the (Car Wash) task force until everything is cleared up,” the editorial stated.

Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, who has sharply criticized Moro’s aggressive methods when he was a judge, on Tuesday told reporters that the messages could potentially being used against him in future criminal charges, arguing that despite the hack being illegal, the evidence it revealed was still valid.

Another top court justice, Marco Aurelio Mello, said if Moro had worked with prosecutors in the way that the leaked messages indicated, he would have clearly broken the basic ethical standards of an impartial judge.

“We are all against corruption, but not the fighting of it at any cost,” Mello said. “That would be a setback for the democratic rule of law.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated it would soon take up an appeal from Lula’s lawyers for him to be freed from prison, but have not yet settled on a date.

Moro’s conviction of Lula was the highest-profile verdict in the ongoing Car Wash probe, which has led to the imprisonment of scores of politicians and businessman in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.

The legal team for Lula, who faces at least six other trials on corruption charges, said the leaked messages proved what they have argued in court: that Moro and federal prosecutors teamed up to ensure that their client would be quickly found guilty and blocked from last year’s election. </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> 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> SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazilian Justice Minister Sergio Moro and federal prosecutors scrambled to respond yesterday to reports published by news website The Intercept based on what it said were leaked messages from a corruption probe.

The Intercept said it was only beginning to report on an “enormous trove” of leaked messages between Moro and prosecutors on Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform, that it had received from an anonymous source. It said the messages raise serious questions about the impartiality of Moro, a former judge who sent ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to prison.

The excerpts, released on Sunday, included exchanges in which Moro made suggestions to prosecutors about the focus, pace and sequence of investigations.

Attorneys for Lula, a leftist icon who remains one of the most influential opposition figures in Brazil, have been petitioning the Supreme Court for his release and seized on the reports to argue that his sentence should be overturned. Moro, speaking at an event in Brasilia on Monday, argued that the messages published so far showed no improper conduct on his part.

The team of federal prosecutors cited in the messages said they had acted properly throughout the five-year investigation known as “Car Wash,” which uncovered billions of dollars of political bribery. They said in written statements that they had been targeted by a hacker, adding that they were concerned about messages being taken out of context and possibly forged. Moro, who left his role as the most prominent judge in the Car Wash probe to become justice minister in January, also criticized The Intercept for not naming “the person responsible for the criminal invasion of the prosecutors’ cell phones.”

“Regarding the content of the messages citing me, there is no sign of any abnormality or directing of actions as a magistrate, despite them being taken out of context,” he said in a statement.

Andrew Fishman, managing editor at The Intercept Brasil, told Reuters in a statement that Moro and prosecutors had said over the years that they were not collaborating, and “the reporting shows that their private actions contradict their own public statements at the time.”

Lawmakers in Brasilia suggested the controversy would not slow their work on an overhaul of the country’s social security system, which the government considers essential to kick-starting an economic recovery.

Congressman Marcelo Ramos, who heads the pension reform committee in the lower house of Congress, said he and his colleagues had a responsibility not to slow their work.

Still, he told Reuters that Moro should temporarily step down as justice minister until he can explain his collaboration with prosecutors. That would give the federal police, which Moro oversees, freedom to investigate the former judge if deemed necessary.

The office of President Jair Bolsonaro told the Globo TV network late Monday that the leader had “complete trust” in Moro. Earlier, a spokesman had said Bolsonaro would not comment on the situation until he had a chance to meet in person with his minister on Tuesday.

Brazil’s national bar association, which has frequently criticized what it sees as overly aggressive prosecutions and in recent months called for the Car Wash team of prosecutors to be disbanded, on Monday said any prosecutor involved cited in the leak should resign.

Moro’s conviction of Lula was the highest-profile verdict in the ongoing Car Wash probe, which has led to the imprisonment of scores of powerful politicians and businessman in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, reshaping the region’s political landscape.

Lula, who faces at least six other trials on corruption charges, ran for president last year but was blocked from appearing on the ballot because of his conviction by Moro, which was upheld on appeal. Lula led opinion polls heading into the election, which was won by far-right Bolsonaro.

Some excerpted conversations published by The Intercept showed prosecutors discussing how to block journalists from interviewing Lula in jail during last year’s campaign. A message attributed to one of the prosecutors, Laura Tessler, suggested that such an interview could help Lula’s stand-in on the Workers Party ticket.

The prosecutors said in their statement on Monday that imprisonment involves restricting the communications of all inmates, regardless of who they are. Tessler did not respond to a request for comment.

In a written statement, Lula’s legal team said the leak proved what they have argued in court: that Moro and federal prosecutors teamed up to ensure that their client would be quickly found guilty and blocked from last year’s election.

Moro and the prosecutors have denied any illegal collaboration or political motives.

The Intercept said it had secured the archive of texts, audio and video outside of Brazil so “numerous journalists have access to it” and no one country can block use of the material.

The website was co-founded by Brazil-based journalist Glenn Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for his reporting on the U.S. National Security Agency’s vast spying program. </s> The Brazilian Bar Association and a congressman have called for the suspension of Justice Minister Sergio Moro after reports published by an online magazine appeared to question Moro's impartiality in a case that saw a former leftist president convicted of corruption.

The Intercept report said that, as a crusading anti-corruption judge, Moro coordinated with prosecutors in the case that led to the conviction and jailing of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula was blocked from running as a presidential candidate because of the 2018 conviction. The leftist leader led opinion polls heading into the October election, which was won by far-right Jair Bolsonaro.

The website said it was only beginning to report on an "enormous trove" of leaked messages between Moro and prosecutors on Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform, that it had received from an anonymous source.

The Bar Association also recommended that all the prosecutors involved in the Car Wash scandal probe be disbanded "so that the investigation can run without any suspicions".

The five-year investigation, known as Car Wash, uncovered billions of dollars of political bribery involving politicians and bureaucrats.

Moro denied any wrongdoing. "There is no orientation in those messages," he told reporters on Monday. He added that he couldn't confirm if the published messages were real because he had not saved them.

In an earlier statement, he called the reports "sensationalist".

"Regarding the content of the messages citing me, there is no sign of any abnormality or directing of actions as a magistrate, despite them being taken out of context," he said.

Moro, who left his role as the most prominent judge in the Car Wash probe to become justice minister in January, also criticised The Intercept for not naming "the person responsible for the criminal invasion of the prosecutors' cell phones."

The excerpts, released on Sunday by the Intercept, included exchanges in which Moro made suggestions to prosecutors about the focus, pace and sequence of investigations.

Attorneys for Lula, a leftist icon who remains one of the most influential opposition figures in Brazil, have been petitioning the Supreme Court for his release and seized on the reports to argue that his sentence should be overturned.

The team of federal prosecutors cited in the messages said they had acted properly throughout the Car Wash investigation.

They said in written statements that they had been targeted by a hacker, adding that they were concerned about messages being taken out of context and possibly forged.

Andrew Fishman, managing editor at The Intercept Brasil, told Reuters in a statement that Moro and prosecutors had said over the years that they were not collaborating, and "the reporting shows that their private actions contradict their own public statements at the time."

Meanwhile, legislators in Brasilia suggested the controversy would not slow their work on an overhaul of the country's social security system, which the government considers essential to kick-starting an economic recovery.

Congressman Marcelo Ramos, who heads the pension reform committee in the lower house of the National Congress, said he and his colleagues had a responsibility not to slow their work.

Still, he told Reuters, Moro should temporarily step down as justice minister until he is able to explain his collaboration with prosecutors. That would give the federal police, which Moro oversees, freedom to investigate the former judge if deemed necessary.

The office of President Jair Bolsonaro told the Globo TV network late on Monday that the leader had "complete trust" in Moro.

Earlier, a spokesman had said Bolsonaro would not comment on the situation until he had a chance to meet in person with his minister on Tuesday.

Moro's conviction of Lula was the highest-profile verdict in the ongoing Car Wash probe, which has led to the imprisonment of scores of powerful politicians and businessman in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, reshaping the region's political landscape.

Some excerpted conversations published by The Intercept showed prosecutors discussing how to block journalists from interviewing Lula in jail during last year's campaign.

A message attributed to one of the prosecutors, Laura Tessler, suggested that such an interview could help Lula's stand-in on the Workers Party ticket.

The prosecutors said in their statement on Monday that imprisonment involves restricting the communications of all inmates, regardless of who they are. Tessler did not respond to a request for comment.

In a written statement, Lula's legal team said the leak proved what they have argued in court: that Moro and federal prosecutors teamed up to ensure that their client would be quickly found guilty and blocked from last year's election.

The Intercept said it had secured the archive of texts, audio and video outside of Brazil so "numerous journalists have access to it" and no one country can block use of the material. </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."
New leaked messages between Brazilian judge Sérgio Moro and prosecutors of Operation Car Wash show that Moro suggested they leak confidential information concerning Odebrecht's activities in Venezuela to members of the Venezuelan opposition. Some prosecutors even entertained the possibility of provoking a civil war in Venezuela over the leaks.