The senator (-BA) decided this Wednesday (24) to leave his position as government leader in the Senate. He was under pressure to leave the post after being the target of a police operation linked to .
Wagner resisted the idea of leaving government leadership. His departure was finalized after a two-hour meeting with President Lula (PT). The head of government was considering dismissing his ally, but preferred that the senator himself take the initiative to step aside.
Lula, who will run for re-election this year, wants to prevent his candidacy from being contaminated by the Banco Master scandal.
Last Monday (22), Wagner’s defense against the decision of the minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), which authorized the senator’s addresses. In the request, the team denied the PF’s accusation that Wagner had acted in and stated that there were “serious errors” in the measure.
With the appeal, the defense seeks, for example, to annul the evidence obtained from the search and seizure of the senator’s addresses. If Mendonça denies the request, the lawyers must appeal to the Second Panel of the Supreme Court.
The decision to leave Wagner’s post, as shown by Sheet. The movement is a gesture to try to preserve the PT administration amid the scandal, which .
Jaques Wagner held the position of government leader in the Senate since the beginning of the current term of (PT). It was announced during the transition government, in December 2022. Former governor of Bahia, he is one of the main PT names in the state and.
Lula and Wagner have known each other for almost 50 years and have become friends over these decades. The senator was one of the main politicians who maintained support for the current President of the Republic when he was arrested in 2018.
Interlocutors heard by Sheet claim that the senator has already wanted to hand over the leadership twice after the government’s defeats in Congress, but Lula would not have let him. The first attempt to abandon the position occurred with the , which benefits the former president (PL), and, later, when the (Supreme Federal Court) was rejected.
Now, the government fears that action against Wagner will undermine the effect of revelations about the presidential pre-candidate (-RJ), who also maintained a relationship with Vorcaro and even asked the former banker for money to finance the film about his father.
Lula had already questioned Wagner, in private meetings, about news about his relationship with Augusto Lima, Vorcaro’s former partner. According to reports, on these occasions the senator reassured the president, stating that he had no involvement in the case.
It also found that the president was already prepared for the possibility of the Banco Master scandal affecting people at the core of his government, especially in Bahia, and had even rehearsed the response to give.
The expectation in Planalto is that Lula will reiterate his speech in favor of the operations initiated under his own government and make a request for explanations from Wagner.
The new phase of Operation Compliance Zero, launched this Thursday, investigates suspicions of passive corruption, active corruption and money laundering. In addition to Jaques Wagner, targets were Augusto Lima and Eduardo Sodré Martins, Wagner’s stepson and government secretary (PT-BA).
Investigators identified a payment of R$3.5 million from a company linked to Lima to Jaques Wagner’s “family nucleus”, which according to the minister, rapporteur of the Master case at the STF, is one of the evidence of closeness between the parliamentarian and the senator.
Wagner would also have received an apartment from Lima valued at R$2.5 million, in addition to free travel on jets linked to Master, and tickets to attend a show by an “international singer” in Los Angeles, in 2023.
At addresses linked to the senator, Federal Police agents (around R$471 thousand, in current values).
