The testimony of () in the (Supreme Federal Court) was seen by lawyers of defendants as a mere formality, with little impact on the situation of the former president.
The assessment is that the crimes against the state is certain. The mild interrogation climate, without deepening the former president’s contradictions, reinforces the thesis that the audience will not change the outcome of the process, according to the defense of three defendants.
Bolsonaro testified for just over two hours on Tuesday (11). The interrogation was surrounded by expectations for being the first time the former president would talk to Moraes about the investigation that could take him to prison.
The one adopted in other moments of the same process. In the testimonies of the witnesses, the minister and gave to understand that the general had softened his version of the plot.
The incisiveness of the Supreme Minister gave way to tolerance to hear from Bolsonaro long answers and, in some cases, unrelated to the process. In at least three occasions during the statements Moraes pointed out that it would not be up to him to contradict the defendants, explaining his posture.
Two Supreme Ministers consider that it was important because it confirmed that the former president had access to a document with “regarding” (part of a decree that suggested the adoption of exceptional measures after the presidential elections) and presented him to the heads of the meeting at the Dawn Palace, according to interlocutors heard Sheet.
Although Bolsonaro minimizes the relevance of discussions with military and allies, the analysis made is not that the main points of the complaint were robistered by the former president’s statements.
“The conversations were quite informal, not something proposed here, ‘let’s decide’, none of this happened. It was informal conversation, see if there was any hypothesis of a constitutional device for us to achieve a goal we had not hit in the TSE. This was discarded in the first, second meeting,” Bolsonaro said.
The Attorney General of the Republic, also had a discreet performance in Bolsonaro’s testimony. He asked nine questions, as some who had prepared were asked before by Moraes.
The PGR assessment was that the defendants’ statements-as Bolsonaro, the former minister and former navy chief-confirmed the main points presented by the complaint.
This was the first time Paulo Sérgio and Garnier talked about the accusations. The two confirmed that they were in a meeting in early December 2022 in which Bolsonaro presented to the military a document with the “considers” that would be based on the coup.
Garnier tried to minimize the severity of the subject discussed at the meeting.
“There were no deliberations nor the president opened the word to us. He made his considerations, seemed more concerns and analysis of possibilities than a intention to lead something in a certain direction,” he said.
Even not to mention coup, Paulo Sérgio said he was “very worried” about the content of the document presented by Bolsonaro.
“After the meeting ended, I arrived at the president-personally, I think Freire Gomes was by my side-warning of seriousness, the gravity if he had been thinking of a state of defense, a state of siege,” said the former minister.
“We were talking there, in a storm of ideas, [sobre] The consequences of a future action that I imagined could happen if the evolution really were ahead, “he added.
With their statements, all former military chiefs who attended the meeting confirmed the content of the document, although each defense has its own strategy to dismiss the defendants from scammers.
The former president wrote on social networks, after the testimony, who answered the questions in the supreme “with his head up, with the quiet conscience and the serene spirit of whom he knows he is innocent and never betrayed the values of the homeland.”
“History will judge each one of us. May it find me, as I have always been, true to the truth, to our God and the Brazilian people. Today I leave the peaceful and more confident court that I will be the next President of the Republic to help take our country out of this mess,” he concluded.
The about the coup plot. The accelerated pace adopted by Moraes focuses on ensuring that the case is closed in 2025 to prevent the process from being contaminated by the 2026 electoral calendar.
In the current phase of the process, the defendants’ defenses have five days to ask the Supreme Court to take steps, such as the inclusion of evidence and the testimony of new witnesses.
The next step of the process will be that of the final allegations. Each party shall present to the Supreme Court its last considerations for the conviction or acquittal of the accused.
The PGR will be the first part of the process to manifest within 15 days. The whistleblower Mauro Cid will be the second to submit his final allegations, with the same term. Finally, the defenses of the other defendants will be called to speak.
The final allegations phase is the last before Moraes prepare the process report and his vote. When everything is ready, he will ask for a date for trial. The expectation in the Supreme is that the case goes to the plenary of the first class from September.
