Moro's specialty is setting traps. Why would it be any different now?

The calm way Lula spoke this Thursday about the possibility that Moro fabricated the story that he was targeted by the PCC suggests that the president has information that he cannot yet make public.

But, strictly speaking, it's not even necessary to have provided additional information or an intelligence report to be suspicious of the version bearing the digital signature of Lava Jato judge Gabriela Hardt, from Curitiba, a wannabe Batgirl, back when Moro was called Batman.

Starting with Sergio Moro's track record. But not only that. First, the track record: Moro would be capable of such a setup. Two episodes demonstrate the former judge's lack of scruples. 

In 2006, a court-ordered wiretap detected a conversation between lawyer Adolfo Gois and Roberto Brasiliano, an advisor to then-congressman José Janene Roberto Brasiliano.

The two were discussing alleged money laundering operations by Alberto Youssef, for the benefit of Janene. Moro, although he was not the judge who authorized the breach of confidentiality, received the transcript.

Since it involved a federal congressman, the case should have been referred to the Supreme Federal Court. At most, Moro could have used the dialogue as a starting point to annul Youssef's plea bargain and put him back in jail.

But Moro decided to keep the case, without returning Youssef to the prison system. He stipulated, in fine print, that the Federal Police conduct an investigation under his jurisdiction. And this investigation took eight years before the first arrests and search and seizure warrants were issued. 

It was only in January 2014, the year of the presidential election, that the Federal Police made the first arrest warrants, including that of Alberto Youssef. 

Prosecutor José Soares Frisch, who worked at the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, Moro's court, was against it. He argued that Moro lacked the jurisdictional authority to make decisions in this case, since the facts under investigation revealed evidence of crimes in both São Paulo and Brasília.

But after that, Soares Frisch didn't last long in the position. A month later, Deltan Dallagnol took his place and was authorized to form a task force, for which he called upon friends and former subordinates. 

"It was a personal decision, and I prefer not to disclose the reasons why I switched positions with Deltan Dallagnol," said Soares Frisch when I interviewed him in March 2021.

Soares's opinion, which brought Lava Jato down in its cradle, was lost in some digital archive of the 13th Federal Court until journalist Marcelo Auler found it and wrote the first article about the case.

Former Attorney General Rodrigo Janot had already recounted part of the story in his book, "Nothing Less Than Everything — Behind the Scenes of the Operation That Put the Political System in Check."

"The prosecutor in the case, Pedro Soares, would be replaced by another, Deltan Dallagnol. To this day I don't understand why Soares left the case, but if it was his wish, that's fine."

Janot got the name wrong, but that's the least of it.

In the case of the PCC, the action also took a strange turn until it ended up on the desk of Gabriela Hardt, the judge who sentenced Lula to 12 years and one month, with a sentence that had passages copied from another decision by Moro.

The judge who should have reviewed the arrest and search warrant requests in the PCC investigation was Sandra Regina, the substitute judge of the 9th Federal Court of Paraná, but she went on vacation on March 16, before making any decision.

The investigation was reassigned, and Gabriela Hardt was assigned the case. She could have made any decision on Friday, March 17th, or Monday, March 20th. Or even on the 23rd or 24th, or any other date.

But the action began to move in the e-proc system of the Federal Court of Paraná at 11:49 am on Tuesday the 22nd, minutes after profiles on the social network began to disseminate decontextualized excerpts from Lula's interview with TV 247, in which he revealed that he had told his tormentors in prison that he would only be okay when he got revenge on Moro.

It wasn't much different from what he said in the various interviews he gave in prison, when he stated that his life's purpose was to prove that Moro lied in the case against him. 

At 12:47 PM, the arrest and search warrants, which she had digitally signed, were already in the e-proc system, but they were not public knowledge, as the case was under seal. 

At 14:33 PM, Moro gave an interview to CNN to respond to Lula and demonstrated that he may have known the operation was about to be launched, by saying that Lula's statement put his life and that of his family at risk.

How could a political speech by Lula put anyone's life at risk? 

The following day, Operation Sequaz was launched, and initial reports indicated that the PCC was planning to kidnap Moro, and also mentioned the former judge's wife, Rosângela, as a possible target.

On Thursday afternoon, Gabriela Hardt lifted the secrecy surrounding the arrests, and it is hoped that something substantial will justify the noise surrounding the version that Moro may have actually been targeted by the PCC.

For now, the explanations are vague. 

Prosecutor Lincoln Gakiya, another potential target—justifiably so because he was the author of the 2019 request to transfer PCC leader Marcola from São Paulo to Brasília—says that Moro's inclusion is due to the testimony of a person whose name is being withheld because they are in a witness protection program.

"During the course of the investigations, evidence emerged suggesting that former Minister Moro was one of the authorities who could be targeted for attack or even kidnapped. And we even gathered more evidence; we even had a protected witness in the witness protection program who allegedly carried out this mission."

What are these other "elements of proof"? He doesn't say. What a protected witness says should always be received with caution. What counts is the evidence they present.

"So, we passed this case on to the Federal Police. This was at the beginning of February 2023. But we have been working with the Public Prosecutor's Office, including myself personally, in conjunction with the Federal Police. I myself promised Minister Moro and the Attorney General that, within three months, we would clarify this case together with the Federal Police, and we managed to resolve this situation in 45 days," he adds.

"I just want to emphasize, even to remove any political character from the action or the operation itself, that the plan had already been underway for more than five months. We have receipts there showing that these criminals, in the case of Moro and other states as well, had already committed money, for example, renting country houses, renting properties, armored vehicles. And not only in Curitiba, in Moro's case, but in other capitals of the country as well. So, it's an issue that was discovered in January, but this planning had already been underway since August of last year," he concludes.

If there were other targets in other states, why was the operation centralized in Curitiba?

For now, there is no answer.

Another point worth highlighting is that Moro, when he was the warden of the Catanduvas federal prison – built during Lula's second term – was not exactly a fighter against organized crime.

Reporter José Maschio revealed in 2007 that chaos reigned in the prison. The report cites a report on the situation in the prison. "Beira-Mar, the report says, has already assumed the role of leader of the other inmates. (...) The Rio de Janeiro drug trafficker has been helping poorer prisoners by hiring lawyers and has already rented two apartments in Catanduvas 'to serve as shelters for relatives of prisoners'," the document states.

When I interviewed Maschio for the documentary "The Great Farce - How Moro deceived Brazil and got rich," he said that, because of the report, the then-judge-inspector severed ties with him. 

In his autobiography, Moro mentions Fernandinho Beira-Mar as the author of a letter addressed to him, but he doesn't touch on the subject of the report that motivated Maschio's story, which ended up winning the Folha Journalism Prize.

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PS: Federal prosecutor Soares Frisch is involved in Operation Sequaz and, unlike what he did in Lava Jato, did not oppose the Federal Police's requests for investigation.