Mello Franco: Lava Jato defendants count on Gilmar's goodwill.
A journalist states that the idea of reviving the "off-the-books" campaign financing argument didn't seem very promising, but the defendants in the Lava Jato corruption scandal have just received a boost from Minister Gilmar Mendes, who declared that "the simple act of making an off-the-books donation does not a priori imply bribery or corruption"; "The strategy was demolished by the Supreme Federal Court in early October 2012," he recalls, when many defendants in the AP 470 case relied on the same argument to "try to escape prison."
247 - The journalist Bernardo Mello Franco makes a comparison, in his column in Folha de S.Paulo, with the defendants in the so-called 'mensalão' scandal, judged by the Supreme Federal Court in 2012, and those in Lava Jato, in an attempt to assert that undeclared campaign contributions are not necessarily a crime.
"The strategy was demolished by the Supreme Federal Court in early October 2012," he recalls, when many defendants in AP 470 relied on the same argument to "try to escape prison." The journalist remembers speeches by STF ministers against the defense's arguments, including Gilmar Mendes.
Today, even though the idea of reviving the "slush fund" theory didn't seem very promising, the defendants in the Lava Jato corruption scandal gained some encouragement from Gilmar Mendes, who declared, after the Odebrecht plea bargain directly implicated the Temer government and the president himself, that "the simple act of making a donation through an off-the-books fund does not a priori imply bribery or corruption."