Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reports that the Federal Police found a draft decree in the home of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres that would presumably be used to place the Superior Electoral Court under a state of emergency “with the goal of overturning the outcome of the 2022 elections.” Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters have for years claimed that the elections were rigged. The former president has never offered any piece of evidence to back up his claims. Mr. Bolsonaro has yet to concede his 2022 defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The false belief of a stolen election was the motivation behind the January 8 riots — the worst attack on democratic institutions since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Mr. Torres. He is accused of intentionally omitting himself from his duty to plan a security response that would prevent a pro-Bolsonaro rally from evolving into a riot.
Mr. Torres served as Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister between March 2021 and December 2022, reinforcing the perception that the poor security response was less incompetence and more malice. While the riots unfolded, Mr. Torres was in Florida on vacation — where Mr. Bolsonaro has been lodged since December 30.
Mr. Torres’s lawyer said he didn’t pen the draft. Instead, he claims the former cabinet minister was given the document by citizens. “Every day, someone would hand him a proposal for a coup, a state of emergency. That was never taken to the president.”
Still in the U.S., Mr. Torres reacted to the report on Twitter:
“In my house there was a pile of documents to be discarded, where most likely the material described in the article was found. Everything would be taken to be shredded in due course at the Justice Ministry. The said document was taken when I was not there and leaked out of context, helping to fuel fallacious narratives against me. We were the first ministry to deliver management reports for the transition. I respect Brazilian democracy. I have a clear conscience regarding my role as minister.”
No cargo de Ministro da Justiça, nos deparamos com audiências, sugestões e propostas dos mais diversos tipos. Cabe a quem ocupa tal posição, o discernimento de entender o que efetivamente contribui para o Brasil.
— Anderson Torres (@andersongtorres) January 12, 2023
Talks about a state of emergency are not foreign to Mr. Bolsonaro’s camp.
In a large demonstration on Independence Day in 2021, the former president told supporters in Brasília he would meet with the Council of the Republic, a body which the president is required to consult before requesting Congress to declare a state of emergency. No such meeting was ever scheduled, but supporters applauded his remarks.
The revelation of the draft decree is yet another example of Mr. Bolsonaro emulating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his own failed re-election effort. Mr. Trump famously personally pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes.
Four days later, he incited a crowd of supporters to invade the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from counting votes previously certified by the Electoral College.
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