In demonstrations the morning after the attack, the minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and the general director of , Andrei Rodrigues, anticipated conclusions that link the episode to investigations involving the former president () and his allies.
Both said on Thursday (14) that the attack was not an isolated incident and indicated relationships with other cases reported by Moraes related to attacks on institutions. They also criticized the possibility of amnesty for .
The investigation into the bomb attacks is being processed under secrecy at the Supreme Court, and the report was assigned to Moraes by the president of the court, as he understands that there is a connection with other investigations carried out by the minister.
According to experts, however, there is still no evidence to suggest this.
Moraes spoke the morning after the attack at an event held by the Public Ministry, in Brasília, and said that Barroso had yet to decide who would handle the investigation.
In his speech, he stated that the context that led to the attack began “when the famous office of hate began to distill hate speech against institutions and against the Federal Supreme Court” and that this also resulted in January 8th.
“It is a demonstration that it is only possible and necessary to pacify the country by holding all criminals accountable,” said the Supreme Court minister.
The investigations into the call — which was made up of Bolsonaro’s assistants who produced content against Supreme Court ministers and other authorities on social media — are part of the so-called digital militia investigation, reported by Moraes.
The minister also took advantage of the speech to once again criticize what he calls the “false cloak of a criminal use of freedom of expression”.
“Offending, threatening, coercing. Nowhere in the world is this freedom of expression, this is a crime,” he said. The justification is the same used by the minister when defending the regulation of social networks, one of his flags, and in the decisions in which he determines the removal of profiles from the platforms.
In a press conference that , the director general of the Federal Police also gave his opinion on the case and repeated the topics raised by the minister of .
Andrei Rodrigues said that the attack “is not an isolated event, but is connected to several other actions, which the Federal Police have been investigating recently.”
He stated that “these extremist groups are active” and that the PF needs to act energetically.
When asked whether the perpetrator of the attack was a “lone wolf” — that is, who acted alone —, Andrei advanced in relation to what had been investigated up until that moment: “Although the visible action is individual, behind that action never there is only one person. There is always a group or radical extremism that leads to the commission of these crimes.”
He also said that the seriousness of the case shows “the need for clear regulation and rules for social networks” and criticized the possibility of amnesty for those involved in January 8th.
To link the investigations to the January 8 inquiries reported by Moraes, the PF director general cited in the interview, as an example, an audio in which his ex-wife mentions that he was in Brasília at the beginning of 2023.
He also says that another link in the case are messages left at his home mentioning a person who acted violently on January 8th. “This points to a direct relationship with these episodes.”
The report contacted Moraes and Andrei, through their advisors, but there was no response.
as to Sheet showed, Andrei’s interviews have become frequent since he took office in the government ().
In some situations, he anticipated legal assessments on work that had not yet been completed, saying he was already certain that there was evidence or pointing out crimes in investigations that were still ongoing.
In a note released on Thursday afternoon, the STF stated that the investigation’s rapporteur was with Moraes because he is already investigating cases that have a direct connection with the new process.
In this case, the action was related to the investigation into undemocratic acts. Barroso justified that the information collected by the Federal Police has “an apparent relationship with the anti-democratic acts that occurred on January 8, 2023, being investigated by the Supreme Court.”
“According to initial investigations, the perpetrator of the explosions made publications on social media about the attack, in which he attacked the Judiciary and called on the population to revolutionize and take power”, says the note from the Supreme Court.
According to the president of the court, the initial information “reveals possible crimes against the democratic rule of law, with the aim of attacking, through violence, the independence of the Judiciary and the Federal Supreme Court.”
In a statement during the afternoon, the dean of the STF, , also said that Wednesday’s episode is “a presupposition for the holding of a rational debate on the defense of our institutions, on the regulation of social networks” and on “possible proposals to amnesty criminals”.
