Janot opens loophole to accelerate Odebrecht's plea bargain.
The formal request for urgency in the approval of the Odebrecht plea bargains, made by the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, opened a loophole for the president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), Cármen Lúcia, to approve the plea bargain of the 77 former executives of the construction company in Lava Jato even during the Judiciary's recess period, which ends next Tuesday (31); the request to treat the Odebrecht agreement as a matter of urgency may give Cármen Lúcia, as the STF's duty judge during the recess, the power to take over the case, since the company's plea bargain becomes, in theory, an urgent matter; the duty judge can only analyze urgent matters during the recess period; the minister is evaluating the possibility of adopting the measure, but has not yet made a decision.
247 - The formal request for urgency in the approval of the Odebrecht plea bargains, made by the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, opened a loophole for the president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), Cármen Lúcia, to approve the plea bargain of the 77 former executives of the construction company in Lava Jato even during the Judiciary's recess period, which ends next Tuesday (31). The request to treat the Odebrecht agreement as a matter of urgency may give Cármen Lúcia, as the STF's duty judge during the recess, the power to take over the case, since the company's plea bargain becomes, in theory, an urgent matter. The duty judge can only analyze urgent matters during the recess period. The minister is evaluating the possibility of adopting the measure, but has not yet made a decision.
The information is from Reporting by Valdo Cruz, Bela Megale and Letícia Casado in Folha de S.Paulo.
"The plea bargain of the collaborators linked to the Odebrecht construction company can only be approved after two remaining steps are completed: the testimonies in which they corroborate that they made the plea bargain of their own free will, and after an analysis of the terms of the agreement."
Hearings with the whistleblowers began this Tuesday (24) and should extend until Friday (27), after the president of the STF authorized the judges who worked with Teori Zavaski, who died in a plane crash on the 19th, to continue the case.
The expectation was that Teori would approve the plea bargain at the beginning of February. With his death, the case became uncertain.
Once the necessary steps are completed and the request for urgency is made, the approval could proceed, even without a new Lava Jato rapporteur being appointed.
If the minister does not follow this path, however, the decision on the approval of the plea bargain will fall to the next rapporteur, who will replace Teori in the position.
The Supreme Court's internal regulations do not make it clear what to do in cases like this.