Bolsonaro’s lawyer: Workers’ Party “uses courts to create a political narrative”

Known for some time in Brazil’s political corridors for her work with parties in the electoral field, Karina Kufa gained public notoriety after she was chosen by Jair Bolsonaro to serve as his lawyer. This relationship was established after Ms. Kufa helped establish the Social Liberal Party (PSL) in São Paulo, allowing the party to put forward candidates for the 2018 election—among them, Mr. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, who is now a member of Congress.

Since then, Ms. Kufa assisted Jair Bolsonaro in his ascendancy to the presidency and was accused of being involved in last year’s internal split of the PSL, which led Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies to seek a new party. Ms. Kufa, who declares herself as a feminist, claims the rift took place because the PSL had no financial or administrative organization, and that all of her suggestions were ignored by party chairman Luciano Bivar.

One of the biggest scandals involving the PSL were the accusations of unlawful use of dummy female candidacies to embezzle electoral funds. The result of the imbroglio was the Alliance for Brazil party, created by Jair Bolsonaro to include his family and allies. The final approval of the group depends on the electoral courts.

Speaking of Mr. Bolsonaro’s affiliation with the PSL, Ms. Kufa called it a “marriage of necessity.” “There was no courtship period, it was a union with strangers. We believed the PSL was willing to change, but then we realized we had been deceived,” she told The Brazilian Report, in an exclusive interview.

Read the full interview below:

Were the irregularities seen in the São Paulo office an early indication that the PSL would cause future problems?

Unfortunately, at the time, the president did not have a more structured party to contest the elections. The PSL was extremely disorganized throughout Brazil. We already saw that it would be difficult to organize a party that was not concerned with good management.

After that event, did the PSL seek you out to provide your services nationwide?

After that job, I was introduced to Eduardo Bolsonaro by the General Secretary of the President’s Office, Jorge Oliveira, who was [Eduardo’s] chief of staff, and I spoke with him about managing the legal part of his campaign. After some successes on the congressman’s campaign, I was called to work on President Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign.

How was your work in relation to fake news?

Due to lack of funds to hire tools and people, we used Facebook’s search function, we listed the links and we filed our suits. It’s worth remembering that the only candidate to be punished [for misinformation] was Fernando Haddad, from the Workers’ Party. Among...