The archiving of an investigation opened in 2019 was defended by the PGR this Monday. For Gonet, investigations made over the seven years must be kept confidential.
By Márcio Falcão, Luiz Felipe Barbiéri, TV Globo — Brasília
STF ministers stated this Monday (9) that the end of the fake news investigation will be an important step. The PGR defended the filing of the case.
The president of the STF, Edson Fachin, will decide on the archiving. He took over as rapporteur in September after the institutional crisis involving the Master case.
Opened in March 2019, the investigation into attacks on the Court brought together operations, blockades and arrests. The investigation was the target of criticism from entities.
The attorney general, Paulo Gonet, defended keeping the investigation data confidential. The investigation accumulates more than 12 thousand sheets and sensitive data.
Ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) privately told TV Globo this Monday (9) that the closure of the fake news investigation will represent an "important step" and "a turning page" in the court's history.
The measure is seen as “symbolic” and the “completion of a cycle”. According to these ministers, the inquiry fulfilled an important function of preserving the performance and legitimacy of members of the Court. But, in the current scenario, the outcome of the investigation would not have unanimous support in court.
The archiving of the so-called fake news investigation was defended this Monday (9) by the Attorney General's Office, with the continuation of the procedures opened on an individual basis.
Now, it is up to the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, to analyze the PGR's opinion and decide on the end of the investigation. The magistrate has previously stated that the investigation should proceed to "definitive archiving".
Fachin took over as rapporteur for the inquiry in September, amid the institutional crisis installed in the Supreme Court in light of the developments in the investigations into the Master case.
The investigations reached members of the Court due to mentions and indications of closeness between ministers and banker Daniel Vorcaro, arrested in Operation Compliance Zero.
Since then, the presidency of the STF has started to comb more than 100 procedures linked to the fake news investigation. At least nine were archived and others had requests for action sent to the Federal Police and the PGR.
The end of the fake news investigation began to be discussed internally during the presidency of retired minister Luis Roberto Barroso. In private conversations, Barroso had been debating with Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who was the rapporteur, the conclusion of the investigation.
With Barroso's departure, Fachin took over internal negotiations to end the investigation, at the end of last year. The president of the Supreme Court had been analyzing a reasonable deadline with Moraes.
The Master crisis, however, ended up putting pressure on Moraes and leading Fachin to take over leading the outcome of the investigation. At the STF, the expectation is that Fachin will archive the main investigation and that the decision will be taken soon.
The investigation was opened in March 2019 on the initiative of the then President of the Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, who appointed Alexandre de Moraes as rapporteur.
The initial focus was to investigate attacks and threats against ministers and the STF, but over the years the investigation expanded its scope and even reached a member of the Court: André Mendonça.
The investigation brings together police operations, social media blocking, arrests and complaints filed by the Attorney General's Office. And it became the target of criticism from entities, such as the Brazilian Bar Association.
In the request for archiving made to the Supreme Court, the PGR defended the investigation.
"Threats directed at ministers and their families, disinformation campaigns financed and disseminated en masse and incitements to close the Court were directed against the freedom to decide and the authority of decisions; they ultimately projected their repercussions on the preservation of the constitutional order", stated the PGR.
The attorney general, Paulo Gonet, also pointed out that the extension of the investigation was a necessity given the risks.
"The temporal extension of this investigation found correspondence in the succession of threats that, over seven years, were identified to the conditions of free and independent exercise of the judicial function by members of the Federal Supreme Court", he declared.
Gonet defends confidentiality of investigations
The PGR also spoke out for maintaining the confidentiality of the data gathered over the seven years of the fake news investigation. The investigation totals more than 12 thousand pages.
The Prosecutor's Office argued that the investigation reached a wide range of people, but it contains sensitive data that must be preserved.
"The collection gathered in these files over 7 years contains information of high strategic sensitivity, relating to the structural and institutional security of the Ministers of the Court and high-ranking authorities of the Republic", stated Gonet.
"The records record threats and elements relating to the physical and operational integrity of public agents in the exercise of central functions of the State; their disclosure has the potential to expose to the public space considered vulnerabilities that the investigation sought to protect", he added.
According to the PGR, in more than 50 volumes, the survey brings together personal, banking, tax and business data from companies, institutions and those being investigated.
In the Prosecutor's Office's assessment, the complete lifting of the confidentiality of the investigation has the potential to cause negative exposure, as the Constitution allows the restriction of publicity to defend privacy or social interests.
"The public interest in knowing facts relevant to community life is, here, served by the publicity of criminal actions and respective decisions. There is no assumption, however, that such an interest prevails over the protection due to data and the privacy of those who went through the investigation without the crystallization of suspicious evidence. Here, a case-by-case assessment of the data to be opened is mandatory," he said.
Gonet also stated that the people and companies mentioned can directly request access to the elements.
Facade of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in Brasília, with a statue of Justice highlighted. — Photo: Disclosure/STF
