Minister Dias Toffoli’s efforts to rewrite the history of Brazil’s fight against
corruption are striking and raise serious concerns about the direction of the
country’s judiciary. With a single decision, he not only imposed his
reinterpretation of the facts but also nullified key rulings from Car Wash in
favor of Antonio Palocci, a former minister who openly admitted his involvement
in illicit schemes and even returned millions of reais to the public coffers.
The ruling on Palocci, however, did not occur in isolation. In May 2024, Toffoli
had already issued a monocratic decision annulling all proceedings from the 13th
Federal Court of Curitiba against Marcelo Odebrecht. The justification in both
cases was the same: the hacked messages leaked during Operation Spoofing,
allegedly revealing collusion between former judge Sergio Moro and the
prosecutors of Car Wash. In practice, this interpretation paved the way for the
review of numerous cases and marked a new approach by the Supreme Federal Court,
whereby illegally obtained evidence—whose authenticity was never even
verified—became grounds for invalidating years of investigations and convictions
based on official documents, plea bargains, and rulings from lower courts. In
effect, this decision not only benefits Palocci but also sets a precedent for
further annulments within Car Wash, allowing politicians and business figures
convicted of embezzling public funds to escape punishment and resume their
careers with their legal records wiped clean.
The legal foundation of these
rulings raises serious concerns. Toffoli based his interpretation on dialogues
leaked through criminal means that were never formally authenticated. Yet, these
messages were deemed sufficient to undermine one of the most significant
institutional efforts against corruption in Brazil’s recent history. The
decision concluded that Palocci’s right to defense had been violated,
disregarding the fact that he himself confessed to his crimes and actively
cooperated with the investigations, offering detailed accounts of corruption
schemes that siphoned billions from public funds. If his confession was unjust,
how does one justify his restitution of illicit funds?
This shift in judicial
narrative has profound implications. The Brazilian judiciary, once focused on
fighting corruption, now appears to prioritize rectifying so-called “procedural
injustices”—even at the cost of disregarding legitimate evidence, undermining
well-established rulings, and discrediting institutions such as the Public
Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police. In Palocci’s case, as in
Odebrecht’s, the annulment of convictions does not invalidate their plea
bargains—meaning that, legally, their confessions and the benefits granted for
them remain intact, yet the legal consequences of their crimes vanish. This
inversion of priorities reinforces a selective application of legal protections,
where certain defendants enjoy extensive judicial shielding while the broader
public witnesses the erosion of the criminal accountability system.
Toffoli
justifies these rulings by arguing that Moro and Dallagnol acted with political
motives. While it is true that both later entered politics, this alone does not
prove that their actions at the time were driven by electoral ambitions. Such
reasoning leads to a dangerous precedent: if someone who combats corruption
later pursues a political career, should their previous work be nullified?
Meanwhile, those convicted of corruption, if rehabilitated by these rulings, are
free to resume their political careers without restriction. As a result, the
central figures of Brazil’s largest corruption scandals reemerge on the
political stage as if nothing had happened, while those who sought to hold them
accountable are discredited.
With these actions, Dias Toffoli has positioned
himself as the chief architect of Car Wash’s judicial dismantling. This process
has already impacted international rankings: Brazil recently recorded its worst
position in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index since
2012. This decline is no coincidence. It is a direct consequence of an
institutional shift that, rather than addressing potential excesses of Car Wash,
opted for its complete disassembly—leaving society increasingly disillusioned
with the judiciary’s ability to combat corruption. What was once an
institutional effort to hold the corrupt accountable has now become a judicial
mechanism for restoring the careers of political and business elites. Toffoli’s
ruling not only consolidates the rehabilitation of these figures but also makes
clear that fighting corruption is no longer a priority in Brazil.
The Supreme
Federal Court, which once played a critical role in prosecuting politicians and
executives involved in billion-dollar corruption scandals, now appears to be
reinventing itself as the great restorer of reputations. A nation that once
aspired to a justice system that was both efficient and impartial now watches as
history is rewritten, allowing the same figures to return to power without
consequence.
#corruption #anticorruption #carwash #stf #integrity #ethics
