January 8 hearings begin divided

After months of political wrangling, Congress on Thursday kickstarted the joint select committee to investigate the Brasília riots of January 8, when thousands of supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked the buildings housing all three branches of government.

From the committee’s first meeting, it was clear that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle had no interest in fact-finding. In fact, the far-right opposition expressed its intention to issue its own final report, regardless of the inquiry’s conclusions.

The motion to create the select committee was authored by Congressman André Fernandes, a member of Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party who is himself under investigation by the Supreme Court for his involvement in the January 8 attack. In his request for a congressional investigation, Mr. Fernandes cites “acts of human action in the headquarters of the three branches of government.” 

He failed to mention that the rioters were hardcore supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro — whipped into a frenzy by far-right agitators, including Mr. Bolsonaro himself — or that they had been camped near the Army headquarters in Brasília. The motion also mentions the alleged possible presence of “infiltrated” agent provocateurs, echoing a conspiracy theory that the riots were actually a false-flag operation orchestrated by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.

The president initially opposed the committee of inquiry, preferring that investigations be conducted solely by the Federal Police and the justice system. The administration publicly changed its stance after CNN Brasil aired surveillance footage of General Gonçalves Dias, then-head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) inside the presidential palace on January 8, apparently being friendly toward the rioters. Lula fired him the same day the story aired.

A remark made by Mr. Fernandes in Thursday’s inaugural sitting was very telling. He...