Brazil: Were Elections Judges Bribed?

Roriz: Nominated to govern the federal district by José Sarney in 1988, before the office was directly elected.

Consultor Jurídico reports on a case also noted recently by Transparency Brazil’s Deu no Jornal — whose Marcelo Soares laments that a fellow like this Sen. Roriz should able to use the current wave of press-bashing to create fear, uncertainty and doubt.

See Brazil: “The Media is a Scapegoat!”

[Update: Sen. Roriz resigned to avoid a trial in the House that might bar him from standing for office in the future. A common loophole. The disciplinary proceeding against him in the House, as I understand it, was [round]filed. See also Jesus Wept: Current Brazilian Videoscandals for a nice recap of the facts in the cast by Rede TV news.]

As if that were not entirely the fault of the incredible gabbling neo-Lacerdist press itself, with its eternal watchword:

For our friends, anything; for our enemies, the law.

We have all been reared on Aesop, have we not?

The fable of the boy who cried “Wolf!” once too often?

A competent press in this situation will simply double-check its facts and stand by its reporting until hell freezes over unless a correction is warranted. Hard work in practice, but the principle is simple enough to grasp.

When Veja gets caught printing anonymously sourced untruths that it never bothered to corroborate, it trots out the Judy Miller excuse: “You are only as good as your sources.”

Anyway, the situation is that two PMDB senators have now been outed by Veja magazine as putative crooks: Renan and Roriz, a former four-time federal district governor.

But Veja magazine’s anonymous source on the Renan “exposé” turns out to be a lying sleaze, argues competing newsweekly IstoÉ.

See Brazil: The Ratfinking of Renan Calheiros.

Which does not, of course, make Sen. Calheiros a saint, by any means. Reality is often dominated by shades of grey. Unless you happen to work for the Grupo Abril.

And now, for the record, the Roriz case.

O Tribunal Regional Eleitoral do Distrito Federal declarou que vai tomar providências contra membros da corte, se ficarem comprovados os desvios de conduta no julgamento do processo contra o senador Joaquim Roriz (PMDB-DF). O parlamentar é acusado de ter recebido R$ 2,2 milhões de origem desconhecida e foi flagrado em uma conversa telefônica com o ex-presidente do Banco de Brasília, Tarcísio Franklin de Moura, discutindo a partilha do dinheiro.

The Regional Electoral Tribunal of the Federal District announced it would take steps against members of the court if it is shown that they engaged in misconduct in adjudicating the proceedings against Sen. Joaquim Roriz (PMDB-DF). The lawmaker is accused of receiving R$2.2 million from sources unknown and was caught on a wiretap talking with the former president of the Bank of Brasília, Tarcísio Franklin de Moura, about divvying the money up.

A wiretap installed by whom? Ah, okay, it was the federal district attorney’s office.

Promises to bork misbehaving judges are not something you hear every day.

More frequent are Brazilian judges who issue hysterical “banana-republican guilty pleas” (“I am shocked! shocked! that you would dare! to question my integrity!”) See also:

• Pertence Probed by PGR; Waxes Wroth
• Mendes Defended
• Folha in a Finer Hour: Judging Judges Judging Judges
• Alagoas: Elections Justice Denies Invisible Charges, Visibly Smoldering Evidence
• Blackout on Pertence Charge; Mello Also in the Mishegaas?

The issue seems to be whether the court would investigate its own members — which has not worked well in the past, as a fine Folha investigative piece pointed out earlier this year — or submit to independent oversight.

 

See Brazil: “Bribery of Judges Will (Not) Be Investigated!”

A revista Veja, em sua última edição, publicou que parte do dinheiro teria sido usada para subornar juízes do Tribunal Regional Eleitoral do Distrito Federal. Roriz diz que o dinheiro surgiu de um empréstimo que pediu ao empresário Nenê Constantino, o dono da Gol e que usou R$ 300 mil na compra de uma bezerra.

Veja magazine, in its last edition, published that part of the money might have been used to bribe judges from the TRE-DF. Roriz said the money came from a loan he asked for from businessman Nenê Constantino, owner of Gol airlines, and that he used the R$300,000 to buy a female calf.

“Might”? [teria sido=was allegedly, might have been, was reportedly.]

On what evidence?

From what sources?

(Paying that much for a young cow is not as outrageous as it sounds. Televised auctions of prime breeding stock are sort of the “celebrity Texax hold-em” of Brazilian TV. The noble boi zebu really is an amazing sight to behold, too. I like to put this sort of show on as ambient programming sometimes. It’s hypnotic.)

I would bet you a free beer that the TSE spoon-fed Veja this story, by the way, as it appears to have done on the Alagoas elections fraud story.

In my observation, Veja rarely, if ever, develops information on its own. It got the story that head of the federal police had a Swiss bank account, for example, from Daniel Dantas. Then, as I said, pled the Judy Miller defense when it turned out to be false: “You are only as good as your sources.”

On the jaw-dropping poor quality of Veja fact-checking in a political corruption case from a decade ago, see also Veja Só: Editorial Integrity at Brazil’s Grupo Abril. “We were incompetent, not malevolent!” Yeah, put that in your next advertising campaign.

Em nota distribuída, nesta segunda-feira (2/7), o TRE-DF esclarece que tomou conhecimento das denúncias através da reportagem publicada na semanal. A corte informou que havia duas representações contra Roriz. Uma delas foi arquivada e não cabe mais recurso. A outra, apresentada pelo PCdoB, está nas mãos do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral.

In a note published Monday (July 2), the TRE-DF says it learned of the charges through the Veja report. The court informed that there are two cases against Roriz. One was dismissed with prejudice and the other, filed by the PCdoB, is in the hands of the federal elections tribunal, the TSE.

O ministro Ari Pargendler, do TSE, é o relator do Agravo de Instrumento apresentado pelo PCdoB contra o ex-governador Roriz. Ele aguarda parecer da Procuradoria-Geral Eleitoral. O recurso é contra decisão do TRE-DF, favorável a Roriz. Nessa ação, o senador é acusado de ter sido beneficiado com propaganda institucional por parte da Companhia de Saneamento Ambiental do Distrito Federal que, ao modificar seu número de telefone, deu destaque ao número do candidato.

Justice Pargendler of the TSE is the judge in charge of the PCdoB complaint against the former governor, and is awaiting the opiono of the federal elections prosecutor. The PCdoB appealed a decision favorable to Roriz by the TRE-DF in a case in which the Senator was accused of being favored by corporate advertising by the federal district sanitation company, which, by changing its telephone number, publicized the candidate’s ballot number.

Em outubro de 2006, o TRE-DF julgou pedido do Ministério Público para cassação do registro da candidatura de Roriz. A acusação é a de que ele usou a máquina pública do Distrito Federal em sua campanha. Na época, ele deixou o cargo de governador do Distrito Federal para disputar a eleição para o Senado. Segundo a revista, que identificou o autor da ação como sendo o Ministério Público, este seria o caso decidido a favor de Roriz, mediante suborno.

In October 2006, the TRE-DF ruled on a petition from the Public Advocate (MP) to cancel the registration of Roriz’s candidacy, on the theory that he used the machinery of public administration for his campaign. At the time, he had left the governorship to stand for the Senate. According to the magazine, which identified the plaintiff in the suit as the MP, this is allegedly the case decided in Roriz’s favor after a bribe was paid.

A reportagem da semanal sustenta que o julgamento do caso foi suspenso por um pedido de vista, com o placar de 3 a 2 contra o senador. Quando a votação foi retomada, um voto-vista empatou a disputa e outro juiz mudou sua decisão em favor de Roriz. O placar passou então para 4 a 2 a favor do então candidato.

The newsweekly says that the case was suspended by a request for review, with the votes standing at 3-2 against Roriz. When voting resumed, a new vote tied the matter and another judge changed his vote to favor Roriz. The courting ended up voting 4-2 in favor of the then-candidate.

Compôem o TRE-DF os seguintes membros titulares: desembargador Otávio Aubusto Barbosa (presidente); desembargador Estevam Carlos Lima Maia (corregedor); juizes de direito José Divino de Oliveira e Roberval Casemiro Belinati; desembargador federal Carlos Fernando Mathias de Souza, advogados Romes Gonçalves Ribeiro e José Luíz da Cunha Filho; e procurador-regional eleitoral Osnir Belice.

The TRE-DF has the following members …

Yes, but which ones changed their votes and are therefore allegedly under suspicion?

Have they commented on the Veja article?

O procurador-geral da República, Antônio Fernando de Souza abriu, nesta segunda-feira (2/7), processo administrativo contra o parlamentar. Ele tem 20 dias para apresentar explicações sobre a conversa telefônica em que combinava a partilha de R$ 2,2 milhões com o ex-presidente do Banco de Brasília, Tarcísio Franklin de Moura.

The federal attorney, Souza, filed an administrative proceeding against the Senator on Monday. He has 20 days in which to explain the telephone conversation in which he agreed to divvy up R$2.2 million with former Bank of Brasília president Moura.

An update today from Último Segundo:

A Justiça do Distrito Federal deve enviar hoje (3) ao corregedor do Senado, Romeu Tuma (DEM-SP), grampos telefônicos e documentos da Operação Aquarela que comprometem o senador Joaquim Roriz (PMDB-DF). Ontem, a 1ª Vara Criminal de Brasília autorizou o envio dos papéis e de um CD aos parlamentares. Os documentos só não foram mandados na segunda-feira (2) porque ainda estavam em poder de promotores do Ministério Público do DF. A Operação Aquarela apontou uma quadrilha acusada de lavar dinheiro na capital com ajuda de dirigentes do Banco de Brasília (BRB).

A federal district court is due to send the Senate corregedor, Romeu Tuma (PFL-SP), a copy of the documents and wiretaps from Operation Aquarela, which compromise Sen. Joaquim Roriz (PMDB-DF).

Tuma is a former director of the Federal Police and DOPS — a notorious political and internal security police bureau.

It is not a fact that figures in his autohagiographical Wikipedia entry, mind you, but it is a fact.

Yesterday, the 1st Criminal Bar of the Federal District authorized sending the papers and a CD to the legislators. The documents were not send Monday only because they were still in the possession of the public prosecutor. Operation [Watercolor] pointed to a gang accused of laundering money in the capital with the help of executives from the Bank of Brasília.

Tuma vai receber ainda mais documentos contra Roriz nos próximos dias. O PT brasiliense, inimigo histórico do senador na capital do país, encaminhará à Corregedoria uma representação, verdadeiro dossiê com acusações contra o senador dos tempos em que ele era o governador do Distrito Federal.

Tuma will receive even more documents agains Roriz in coming days. The Brasília PT, an historic enemy of the Senator in the capital, will file a complaint that is a veritable dossier of accusations against Roriz from the time he governed the Federal District.

A papelada – assinada também pelo PCdoB, PPS, PDT, PSB, CUT e UNE – foi levada à Controladoria Geral da União (CGU) e ao Ministério Público do DF. Agora, a intenção é fazer as denúncias chegarem ao Senado, ao Ministério da Justiça e ao procurador-geral da República, Antonio Fernando Souza.

The avalanche of paper — co-signed by the PCdoB, PPS, PDT, PSB, CUT and UNE — was dispatched to the federal auditor and the federal district prosecutor’s office. The intention now is to get the Senate to take official notice of the charges, along with the Ministry of Justice and the federal attorney, Souza.