Former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro has asked the electoral court not to consider the draft decree, which could have allowed the ballot paper found in the home of a former minister, to be annulled in its investigation into October’s presidential campaign.
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The 2022 document “was never released and should not be released,” asserts the former far-right president’s defense in a response sent to election justice on Thursday.
She argues that the document “is apocryphal, has never left the private homes of others, has not been published or made public (…) has never passed the stage of deliberation”.
The Supreme Electoral Court is investigating whether the former president abused power during October’s presidential campaign.
He had given Mr Bolsonaro three days to explain himself on the document police found on his former Attorney General Anderson Torres.
Jair Bolsonaro never came to terms with his electoral defeat after being slapped over the phone by new Socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The document called for the federal government to take control of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which oversees the smooth running of the elections “to ensure the maintenance and restoration of transparency and to authorize the regularity of the presidential electoral process for the 2022 election.”
A measure that many lawyers regard as unconstitutional. In practice, the intention would have been to annul Lula’s election.
The document is undated, but Jair Bolsonaro’s name is at the bottom of the page, in a space reserved for his signature.
He was found at the home of Anderson Torres, who has been arrested by radical supporters of the former president and is being investigated for his alleged connection to the Jan. 8 attempted insurgency in Brasilia.
Current Justice Minister Flavio Dino last week believed that the draft presidential decree was “a link in the chain towards a coup d’etat” and “the true aim of the events of March 8.”
Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since December 30, two days before the end of his mandate, is also under investigation for the riots in Brasilia, in which he denies any involvement.