Jânio de Freitas: why the delay in the indictment?

247 – A month passed between Lula and Gilmar Mendes' meeting at Nelson Jobim's office. But only now has the alleged content of the conversation been revealed by Veja magazine. What were the reasons? Read Jânio de Freitas' article:

It will always be a matter of mere personal preference, albeit with political undertones, to choose between the conflicting versions of Gilmar Mendes and Nelson Jobim regarding Lula's conversation with the Supreme Court Justice, who accuses him of trying to pressure him not to support the Mensalão trial before the elections. Jobim, the only witness to the meeting, denies this.

Version against version, from two people with the same degree of reliability. But the impasse does not avoid another important issue in several senses.

The meeting, in Nelson Jobim's office, was on April 26th. Why did Gilmar Mendes only decide to give "Veja" his version of what Lula allegedly told him a month later?

The plausible hypothesis is to launch the grenade as close to the elections as possible, but not so close as to make the intention obvious.
There may be other hypotheses, which cannot be formulated, however, because they could only stem from (still) mysterious motives.

There is also no plausible explanation for the meeting with Gilmar Mendes, requested by Lula to Nelson Jobim, other than to gain the support of the Supreme Court Justice for the trial to be held later, against the strong pressure to expedite it.

In this case, the idea of ​​the meeting would be a disastrous failure of Lula's sensitivity.

Evidence of Gilmar Mendes's strained relationship with the Workers' Party (PT) stems from his relationship with Collor and his government, even as his defender during the Senate impeachment proceedings. And, at the origin of this position, or by extension, from his relationship with Lula.

Gilmar Mendes made numerous hostile statements towards the Lula government. On more than one occasion, in his fiery style, he even went so far as to say that we were then living in "a police state".

If not in legal matters, then in his personal actions Gilmar Mendes gave every indication that he would be the last person to whom Lula could present a proposal of a political nature. And one that was convenient for him and the PT in the elections. Especially in São Paulo.

Lula was motivated by political purposes, according to his interlocutor. And Gilmar Mendes, what purposes, if not political, motivated him to launch his grenade 30 days after receiving it, according to his version? And when the issue of bringing forward the trial had already become quite deflated.

This is both because Lula did not seek out other Supreme Court justices, as some have said, and because of the growing willingness, both inside and outside the Supreme Court, to expedite the inclusion of the mensalão case on the court's agenda.

According to Gilmar Mendes, Lula allegedly "hinted" at a kind of exchange: support for the post-election trial and, in return, protection in the Cachoeira CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) against the issue of a stay between the Supreme Court minister and Demóstenes Torres in Germany.

That would be a whole other story.

For the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) declared subject to manipulation, for Lula because of the immorality of the proposed exchange, and for Gilmar Mendes placed under suspicion.

Everything, however, is lost in the impasse of conflicting and unconfirmable versions, both of them.