Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) admitted this Wednesday (23) that he asked allies to “pass on as much as possible” a message with false news and attacks on the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and electronic voting machines. The information had been disclosed on Tuesday (22) by the STF itself, amid investigations into Bolsonarist businessmen accused of encouraging a coup d’état.
The Federal Police found images attributed to Bolsonaro on the cell phone of businessman Meyer Nigri, owner of the Tecnisa consultancy. Along with Luciano Hang, from the Havan stores, he is one of the last two investigated in the inquiry, after six other businessmen were withdrawn for “absence of just cause”.
In one of the messages there is an attack against Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, quoted as someone who “makes a pilgrimage abroad about the current Brazilian electoral process, as something safe and reliable. The worst lies about what was tried to be approved in 2021: the printed vote next to the electronic ballot box, when he met with party leaders and the printed vote was defeated. This is called INTERFERENCE (sic)”.
When asked this Wednesday by Folha de S. Paulo if he had sent the text, Bolsonaro was adamant: “I sent it to Meyer (Nigri), what’s the problem? Barroso had spoken abroad (about the defeat of the printed vote proposal in the Chamber, in 2021), I have always been a supporter of the printed vote”, he said.
The text, which the former president admits to having forwarded, continued: “All this disservice to Democracy by the 3 ministers of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) STF only increases distrust of frauds prepared during the elections. Datafolha inflates the numbers of Lula to give support to the TSE on the occasion of the announcement of the electoral result REPASSE TO THE MAXIMUM”.
This case caused Bolsonaro to be subpoenaed by the Federal Police (PF) for another testimony – it will be the fifth. The hearing is scheduled for the next 31st (Thursday). He has already had to clarify the Saudi jewelry case; about the coup acts of January 8; about fraud in vaccination cards and about the coup plot with Marcos do Val and Daniel Silveira.
To Folha, the former president confirmed that he will give his testimony next Thursday to “explain” the forwarding of the message with attacks. He also said that he did not participate in the group that brought together businessmen who supported him and to which, according to the PF, Nigri forwarded the content sent by the ineligible today.
Also on the 31st, Bolsonaro should be heard again by the PF on the jewelry case. Simultaneously, they must also depose the former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro; lawyers Frederick Wassef and Fabio Wajngarten, who represent the former president; Marcelo Câmara and Osmar Crivellati, advisers to the retired captain; Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid; and Cid’s father, retired general Mauro Lourena Cid.
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Bolsonaro’s conversation with the Folha report this Wednesday took place on a flight between Brasília and São Paulo in the early morning. In the capital of São Paulo, the former representative was hospitalized for “routine tests”, according to Fabio Wajngarten, who said that the clinical conditions and possible consequences of the stabbing suffered in 2018 will be evaluated.
Editing: Thalita Pires
