The Federal Police found in the search and seizure they conducted on Thursday at the office of former President Jair Bolsonaro at the headquarters of the PL, in Brasília, a four-page anonymous text with justifications for the declaration of a State of Siege in the country, according to an investigator involved in the investigation and as seen in the document by Reuters.
The four-page text was one of the findings in the largest operation of the Federal Police launched this Thursday against the attempted coup, which led to the seizure of Bolsonaro’s passport, search and seizure related to four former government ministers, and the arrest of a former presidential advisor.
The investigator from the Federal Police, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that the document found is the “most evident” in the search related to the former president, but emphasized that it is still necessary to analyze the other seized documents in this Thursday’s operation.
The first pages of the text attempt to present arguments, in a sophisticated manner, to justify and lend a sense of legality to the declaration of the State of Siege to be announced at the end.
The document emphasizes that every public servant, whether a Supreme Court justice or a “garbage collector” from a small town, must always act according to the “principle of institutional morality”.
“As ‘guardians of the Constitution,’ justices of the Supreme Court, SC, are also subject to the ‘Principle of Morality,’ even when they promote judicial activism,” states the document.
The text lists four acts that would be considered excessive “judicial activism” and would have an “apparent ‘legality’ (devoid of legitimacy)” in the actions of higher courts.
Among them, illegitimate rules of conduct by suspicious judges, citing the fact that Alexandre de Moraes should never have presided over the Superior Electoral Court due to his alleged ties to the vice presidential candidate of Lula’s ticket, Geraldo Alckmin, and that would allow prior censorship.
“Ultimately, in light of all the above and in order to ensure the necessary restoration of the Democratic State of Law in Brazil, playing unconditionally within the four lines, based on express provisions of the 1988 Federal Constitution, I declare the State of Siege; and, as a continuous act, I decree the Operation to Guarantee Law and Order,” the document says.
This same passage was previously found in a document in the possession of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp in the Presidency, according to a report released by the Federal Police in June of last year.
In a statement, lawyer Paulo Cunha Bueno, who defends the former president, said that Bolsonaro is unaware of the document.
“The former president is unaware of this document about the State of Siege, and it should be noted that the State of Siege, in order to be declared, requires the prior summoning and approval of the Council of the Republic and the Security Council, and, after that, it needs to be approved by Congress,” he said.
“Therefore, there is no State of Siege as a unilateral act by a president, which makes it incompatible with a coup in the mold that is being narrated today,” the lawyer added.
Another defender of Bolsonaro, former Minister Fabio Wajngarten, said on X, the former Twitter, that the content of the document “does not correspond to the traditional and recognized speeches and phrases of the president.”
“Such written content depends mandatorily on joint action by other powers,” he said.
“There is no limit to the desire to bring President Jair Bolsonaro into a political scenario that he never agreed to,” he added.
According to the Constitution, the State of Siege allows for restrictive measures such as the suspension of the right to freedom of assembly.
