The lawyer, who took over the coordination of the defense of the former president (PL), accumulates positions and statements against the former president’s government, in addition to having already praised the investigation into .
The manifestations of the past are at odds with the strategy that Vilardi indicates he wants to use in the (Supreme Federal Court). Although he endorsed the idea that the former president encouraged a coup while in power, he today maintains that his client never participated in organizing it.
Vilardi, who is also a law professor at FGV-SP, was one of almost 700 lawyers and personalities from the legal world who signed in 2020. The initiative repudiated Bolsonaro’s attacks on institutions and his .
The text did not mention him by name, but stated that the President of the Republic used the position to “ruin the foundations of our democratic system, attacking, at the same time, against the Legislative and Judiciary Powers, against the Rule of Law, against the health of Brazilians”.
The conclusion of the subscribers was that the country was at the mercy of “a genocidal action by the president” and that he was not complying with laws and court orders because he called himself “the president”.
Vilardi also endorsed the “Letter to Brazilian women and men in defense of the democratic rule of law”, in reaction to Bolsonaro’s coup, which questioned the electoral system and threatened to contest the result of the election.
The document, without explicit mention of the former president, described a “moment of immense danger for democratic normality” and called for unity against “authoritarian setbacks”.
The two manifestos were also supported by , known as Juca, who is the general’s lawyer, another target of the PF investigation into the coup.
Juca and Vilardi’s entry into the defense teams had as a backdrop the attempt to relax the relationship with the STF, as both are recognized in their careers and have good experience in higher courts. The tendency is for confrontation with magistrates to give way to dialogue.
The two lawyers also signed a letter, along with three professional colleagues, stating that the acts were the result of a “chain of omissions”. For the authors, the starting point had been in 2016, when a torturer, , in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, and “nothing happened to him”.
“A President of the Republic daily attacks democracy and encourages a coup d’état. And nothing [acontece]”, they stated in 2023, shortly after the invasions. The text also said that “Bolsonaro worked throughout his term to undermine the control mechanisms of public power” and rejected amnesties and forgetfulness, because the “time to hold people accountable” had come.
Vilardi has recently made several public comments about January 8, demanding severe condemnation, and the investigations involving Bolsonaro. His speeches have been rescued by Bolsonarists to question the defender’s supposed contradiction.
In interviews before being hired, Bolsonaro’s lawyer said he had no doubt that there was an attempted coup in Brazil and said that “the contours of a criminal organization” were clearly clear, with investigations remaining to move forward to confirm the participants.
“I think there is consistent evidence against the people indicted, including against the President of the Republic”, he stated, when, but the investigation report had not yet been made public.
After , that same month, the lawyer referred to the investigation as “consistent work”, when heard by Jovem Pan News.
Vilardi always preached, in interviews, that the former president’s situation be treated with caution. He stressed, for example, that “conviction requires certainty”, although he agreed with the existence of evidence.
The lawyer also had reservations about the STF, stating that the court “played a relevant role in saving democracy”, but criticizing what he considers excesses, such as the extension of exceptional measures adopted for the 2022 elections and the continued extension of the .
Since taking on Bolsonaro’s case this month, the lawyer says he is convinced that he did not commit a crime and repeats that he analyzed the investigation and concluded that the PF’s work was biased.
HAS Sheet Vilardi says that his previous statements on political and judicial issues “cannot be confused with professional activity”.
“Quite the contrary, I feel comfortable defending the [ex-]president, because after studying the records I did not see any illegal act committed by him. Political criticism should not be confused with the right to defense in investigations or proceedings, which must be based on concrete facts”, he states.
Juca says that he has never had any party ties and that his “personal manifestations reflect the exercise of citizenship.”
“The fact that I criticized the previous government does not remove my legitimacy to denounce that it violates our Constitution and is based on unacceptable presumptions. To see a contradiction in this is to ignore the exercise of the right to defense and the role of the lawyer in the democratic rule of law” , he states.
