Former President Jair Bolsonaro reportedly attended a meeting in December to challenge the outcome of Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, which gave current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the presidency, according to a Brazilian senator.
In a news conference on Thursday, Senator Marcos do Val revealed that both he and Bolsonaro had attended a private discussion on December 9 that had been arranged by Bolsonaro ally and then-Congressman Daniel Silveira.
According to do Val’s testimony, Silveira suggested a strategy to cast doubt on the most recent election, suggesting that do Val set up and covertly film a meeting with Alexandre de Moraes, President of the Electoral Court and a judge on the Supreme Court.
Do Val claimed he was instructed to ask the judge questions that would cast doubt on the accuracy of the vote and the impartiality of the electoral court.
Additionally, he shared screenshots of their WhatsApp conversations regarding the meeting and the strategy.
Bolsonaro’s participation in the conversation, according to do Val, was limited to silence and no opposition to the suggestion. He claimed that there appeared to be an understanding.
“It was Daniel (Silveira) who talked,” Do Val remarked. I promised to get back to you after giving it some thought.
If a senator agreed to the mission, do Val added, “It was very evident that he was in a position to manipulate and have (Bolsonaro) buy into his notion.”
CNN’s request for comment was not answered by Silveira’s legal counsel.
Do Val claims that on December 14, when he did meet with de Moraes, he alerted the judge to the conspiracy rather than documenting the meeting. De Moraes is silent in the media.
According to a Supreme Court document, de Moraes, who is in charge of the ongoing investigation into the January 8 disturbances, ordered do Val to provide Federal Police with a deposition within five days on Thursday.
Do Val added that Silveira had informed him that the plan included the Institutional Security Office (GSI), which is in charge of the president’s security in Brazil. Do Val would receive secret operatives and recording equipment from the GSI.
Following a ceremony for the National Policy for Education at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on June 20, 2022, President Jair Bolsonaro observes. Ueslei Marcelino/REUTERS/File Photo
Jair Bolsonaro, a former president of Brazil, requests a six-month tourist visa for the US.
This was refuted on Thursday by the intelligence agency in charge of the GSI in Brazil, which stated that it was “absolutely not involved in any project connected to the prospect of recording conversations of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court.”
CNN contacted Bolsonaro’s office for comment, but they did not answer. Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of the former president, responded to Val’s comments during a Senate session on Thursday by saying that “clarifications need to be provided so that narratives do not outweigh the truth.”
The truth is that President Bolsonaro resigned from office on December 31, he continued.
Many Bolsonaro supporters have refused to acknowledge the results since Lula narrowly won the Brazilian presidency in a run-off election in October. Their disobedience culminated on January 8 in an attack on government buildings in Brasilia.
The election results were not officially acknowledged by Bolsonaro until December 30.
After reportedly disobeying court instructions and tampering with his electronic ankle monitor, which was the result of a 2021 conviction for anti-democratic conduct, Silveira, a former police officer whose tenure as a congressman ended this week, was detained on unrelated charges on Thursday.