Coup attempt investigation in its final stages

The Federal Prosecution Office said the investigation into a coup attempt led by former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is “nearing completion,” according to a document leaked to news website G1.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday released on bail retired Army Colonel Marcelo Câmara, a former aide to Mr. Bolsonaro. Col. Câmara had been arrested on February 8 as part of an operation during which federal marshals raided addresses linked to Mr. Bolsonaro and seized his passport (a foreboding sign for the former president).

The leaked decision to release Col. Câmara cites a previous document by prosecutors according to which the investigation is coming to a close.

According to Federal Police documents made public at the time of the operation, Mr. Bolsonaro and key members of his defunct administration — including former cabinet members, active and retired high-ranking military officials, and the chair of Mr. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party — engaged in coordinated efforts to set the stage for an old-fashioned coup that, if successful, would have led to the jailing of perceived political enemies and the control of politics by military force.

Investigators identified six groups that made up the criminal enterprise by flooding public discourse with false allegations to discredit Brazil’s electronic voting system, recruiting military officials to support a coup, drafting legal arguments that would support their claims, inciting supporters to riot, and spying on judges and political opponents.

According to the investigation, Col. Câmara was a member of the “parallel intelligence service” group. Text messages obtained by the investigation show that he was monitoring the movements of Justice Moraes, the main target of the far-right’s vitriol. Col. Câmara later traveled with Mr. Bolsonaro to Florida in late 2022, when the former president left Brazil in order to avoid attending the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In a scoop that won the 2024 Digiday Media Award for Best Story, The Brazilian Report revealed that far-right Congresswoman Carla Zambelli, a close Bolsonaro ally, hired notorious hacker Walter Delgatti to steal data from Justice Moraes. Last month, she was charged in a separate investigation.

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