Former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, this Wednesday in Brasilia.Andre Borges (EFE)
Former Brazilian prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, who with his work at the head of Operation Car Wash managed to put President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in jail, has seen his fledgling political career cut short. Turned for many Brazilians into an anti-corruption hero, in the last elections he was elected deputy with a record number of votes. However, his newly released career as a politician has lasted very little: the judges of the Superior Electoral Tribunal decided on Tuesday, unanimously, to annul his mandate, understanding that he committed several irregularities.
To begin with, Dallagnol left the position of prosecutor of the Republic when he was being investigated in 15 administrative processes. In addition, he had already been convicted of irregular expenses with allowances and travel of other members of Operation Car Wash. For the judges, Dallagnol tried to circumvent the law that prevents convicts from standing for election and ran as a deputy to escape the eventual convictions that could come in the future. The former prosecutor can appeal the decision, but for now it has immediate effect and will not be able to return to the Chamber of Deputies.
The former prosecutor expressed irritation in a statement, saying millions of Brazilians had been silenced "with a pen, in defiance of the law and justice." "My feeling is one of outrage at the unprecedented vendetta taking place in Brazil against law enforcement officials who dared to fight corruption. But no obstacle will prevent me from continuing to fight for my life's purpose of serving God and the Brazilian people," he added.
Among the fifteen investigations that Dallagnol had pending with the Justice are, among others, controversial accusations to the Supreme Court for allegedly being complacent with corruption or the thorniest issue: his collaboration with the then judge Sérgio Moro to create the optimal conditions to imprison Lula. The conversations between Dallagnol and Moro, reported at the time by the digital newspaper The Intercept, caused an earthquake in Brazilian politics, by showing that prosecutors and the Lava Jato judge collaborated to corner Lula. Before that, Dallagnol had already engaged in several controversies.
His launch on a national scale occurred in 2016, when when he filed the complaint against Lula for alleged corruption crimes he made a PowerPoint presentation where all the arrows in the diagram pointed to the name of the leader of the left. Its simplicity quickly made it become meme fodder. From there Dallagnol was the target of Brazilian progressives, who accused him of persecution against the former president, and a hero for conservative Brazil. The young prosecutor, a devout evangelical defender of the traditional family, toured the country like a superstar, publishing books and giving lectures in which, for a fee, he spoke of a possible Brazil, without the burden of corruption and impunity.
His desire for prominence always aroused suspicion in many colleagues in the judiciary. The former prosecutor even proposed creating and managing a Lava Jato Foundation, financed with resources rescued from the hole in the oil company Petrobras. The Supreme Court knocked down the idea and described it as a diversion of the function of the Prosecutor's Office, recalling that administering public money is the sole competence of the State. To each criticism, Dallagnol used to refute to his followers that the system does not let things change. The strategy worked and its popularity grew like foam. Over time he amassed a political capital that in last year's elections gave him almost 345,000 votes, becoming the most voted deputy in the state of Paraná.
The petition to annul his seat in Parliament came from Lula's Workers' Party (PT) and the allied forces that ran together in the elections, and was celebrated with irony by various politicians of the left. Justice Minister Flávio Dino, turned rising star on social media, used a Bible verse to comment on the annulment on Twitter: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled," he wrote, saying he was dedicating it to Lula. The president, who for a long time threw almost daily darts at Moro and Dallagnol, did not immediately comment.
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