Temer tells the Supreme Court that he had no "bad intentions" when appointing Moreira Franco.

Paulo Victor Chagas - Reporter for Agência Brasil

The Planalto Palace presented this Friday evening (10) to the Minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Celso de Mello the reasons for the appointment of Wellington Moreira Franco as Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency. The message, forwarded to the Court by the Attorney General of the Union, Grace Mendonça, is a response to the request made by Celso Mello yesterday (9), in which the minister gave 24 hours for President Michel Temer to provide information that he considered relevant for the judgment of actions that prevented the appointment of Moreira Franco.

"There was no ill intent on the part of the President of the Republic to create obstructions or hindrances to Operation Lava Jato," says the text signed by Temer, the Attorney General's Office, and the Sub-Chief of Legal Affairs of the Civil House.

In over 50 pages of documents, the Attorney General's Office (AGU) contests two writs of mandamus filed with the Supreme Court by the PSOL and Rede parties, which question the nomination of Moreira to the secretariat with ministerial status. According to the parties, the appointment was intended to guarantee privileged jurisdiction for the PMDB member, who is mentioned in Operation Lava Jato.

Since the new minister took office last Friday (3), a war of injunctions has begun in the Federal Court. In the most recent one, on Friday night, the Regional Court of the 2nd Region (TRF-2), based in Rio de Janeiro, allowed Moreira to take office, but removed the prerogative of privileged jurisdiction. The impasse should only end after Celso de Mello's decision, at the beginning of next week.

Arguments

The Attorney General's Office (AGU) argues in its message to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that there is no ongoing investigation against Moreira Franco and that preventing citizens from assuming public office before convictions "violates the principle of presumption of innocence." Furthermore, the agency continues, Moreira Franco "is subject, even while in office, to being held accountable for all acts he allegedly committed."

"It is imperative to highlight that there is no knowledge of any mention of the nominee in a plea bargain. It should be noted that even if approved, it remains confidential. Furthermore, the inference made by the petitioner, regarding a secondary and uncertain effect of the challenged act, assumes that this Supreme Court would be lenient, less capable or effective than any lower court in the processing and judgment of original criminal actions, as if it were a locus [specific place] for protection and impunity," says the Attorney General's Office in the text.

Government supporters also disagree that the case is similar to the nomination of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the position of Chief of Staff under then-President Dilma Rousseff. At the time, Lula's nomination was suspended by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes. For the Attorney General's Office, however, the "factual and legal situations are distinct."

"In that case, it was a matter of appointing a citizen, at the time without any formal link to the government, to a ministry that had long existed within the structure of the Presidency of the Republic. In the present case, it is a challenge to the appointment of an occupant of a position of a special nature due to the restructuring of the ministerial organization." Before taking office as Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Republic, Moreira Franco was already working in the government, heading the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI).

According to the Attorney General's Office (AGU), in Lula's case, there were formalized and ongoing police investigations into the former president, unlike the current situation of Moreira Franco.

"In the present case, the Chief Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic is not even being investigated in any inquiry or procedure intended for that purpose. The petitioners' allegation regarding the existence of supposed citations within the scope of the plea bargain [documents that are under judicial secrecy] does not constitute grounds for characterizing a formal investigation in progress."

The government's defense also disputes the claim that there was a misuse of power by the Presidential Palace in recreating the General Secretariat of the Presidency. According to the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the provisional measure issued by Temer is based on "relevant reasons of public interest" and aimed not only at creating the ministry but also at a "true restructuring of the division of powers" and the organization of "existing administrative units in the strategic core of the Federal Executive Branch."

As a final argument, the Attorney General's Office invokes the principle of separation of powers to say that the appointment of a minister is the "own prerogative" of the President of the Republic and affirms that Moreira's suspension could "cause irreparable damage" and "serious harm to public administrative order."

*André Richter contributed to this report.