Is the government dismantling Operation Car Wash?

The famous anti-corruption investigation is losing public support, amid claims that Jair Bolsonaro’s Prosecutor General is trying to neuter the probe. The arrests and prosecutions of Operation Car Wash used to be the talk of the town in Brazil, dominating nightly news shows and the morning headlines. But with the constant crises over the last 18 months, compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, Operation Car Wash increasingly feels like an afterthought, pushed further and further away from the front pages. Hit by media revelations about misdeeds, partisanship, and profiteering, the task force — as well as its main public face, former judge (and former Justice Minister) Sergio Moro — is looking for new credibility to keep their project and political ambitions alive.

While it still has considerable public support, Operation Car Wash is no longer seen as a bipartisan anti-corruption crusade to modernize Brazil’s dysfunctional and unscrupulous state. Its supporters, along with those of Mr. Moro, are now protesting against Mr. Bolsonaro, whose election was largely ensured by the work of the probe and its leading judge.

Furthermore, Operation Car Wash can no longer count on the degree of uncritical media support it once had, leaving its enemies in Congress and the Supreme Court empowered to bleed its powers dry. As a latest example, House Speaker Rodrigo Maia and current Supreme Court Chief Justice Dias Toffoli are looking to pass a political quarantine that would bar former magistrates from seeking electoral office for eight years if...