Renan requests access to Supreme Court case files.
The Senate's Attorney General, Alberto Cascais, filed a request for access to the Lava Jato Operation files at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) so that the Senate President, Senator Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), can have access to them. Renan is among the politicians included on the list sent to the STF for investigation on suspicion of involvement in a corruption scheme at Petrobras. According to Cascais, the request is of an institutional nature, "since he (Senator Renan Calheiros), as president of the Legislative Branch, should have been informed by the Attorney General of the elements against him."
Brazil Agency - The president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), today (6), requested from Minister Teori Zavascki, of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), access to the content of the requests to open investigations related to Operation Lava Jato, sent last Tuesday (3), by the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, to the Court.
The senator also requests permission to review the content of any plea bargain testimonies in which he has been mentioned before the formal commencement of the investigation, and a "reasonable" timeframe to respond to any potential accusations.
In a document recently filed with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) by the Senate's Attorney General, Alberto Cascais, Renan criticizes Janot's actions and argues that, being the target of an investigation by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, as has been reported in the press in recent days, he should have had the opportunity to comment on the accusations.
“If the information replicated by the media is confirmed, the Attorney General, deviating from his usual practice, did not grant the petitioner [Renan Calheiros] the slightest opportunity to clarify beforehand any facts or insinuations that may have been raised against him,” says a passage from the document to which the Agency Brazil had access.
According to the Senate's Attorney General, Janot violated two rules – those of the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Superior Council of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office – by denying opportunities for potential targets of the request to open an investigation in the Supreme Federal Court to present their defense.
“The president of the National Congress is faced, perplexed, day after day, with journalistic reports involving his name, without having had, on the part of those responsible for criminal prosecution, the legitimate opportunity to confront such allegations. That is to say, the omission of the Attorney General deprives the president of the Legislative Branch of the legitimate right to provide information and request investigations that could clarify the facts under investigation,” says an excerpt from the petition.