Cardozo says he “regrets the absurd facts” in Joesley's recording.
Former Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo said he "regrets," although he prefers not to comment on, the recorded conversation made by whistleblowers Joesley Batista and Ricardo Saud, from the JBS group, to make him a target in negotiations regarding the terms of the plea bargain signed with the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office; whistleblowers were allegedly instructed by former prosecutor Marcelo Miller to have a conversation in which the two would feign interest in hiring him for legal services, and depending on the final content, would hand over the audio to the Attorney General's Office; Cardozo, who avoided the trap, said he "deeply regrets all these absurd facts, but I will not comment on this."
247 - Former Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo said he "regrets," although he prefers not to comment on, the recorded conversation by whistleblowers Joesley Batista and Ricardo Saud, from the JBS group, which was used to target him in negotiations regarding the terms of the plea bargain signed with the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office.
Joesley's objective was to use compromising statements from Cardozo to pressure him into recording ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) who were supposedly influenced by him. "I deeply regret all these absurd events, but I will not comment on them," Cardozo told Veja magazine.
In the audio delivered to the Supreme Federal Court by the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, Joesley and Saud talk about a lawyer who was allegedly afraid of a possible compromise between the former minister and the whistleblowers.
"(She, the lawyer) freaked out because of Zé and because she knows that if we hand over Zé, we hand over the Supreme Court... I told Marcelo (Miller, former Attorney General), do you want to get the Supreme Court? Do you? Get Zé. Keep Zé, Zé will hand over the Supreme Court," Joesley says in the recording. Saud then says that Cardozo wouldn't withstand the pressure. "No, that's it... (Zé) wouldn't last half an hour," Joesley adds.