MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro vows to sue hacker for slander

Delgatti has been under arrest three times for his alleged involvement in corruption scandals

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's defense team will sue hacker Walter Delgatti for his allegedly slanderous testimony before the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) investigating the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, Agencia Brasil reported Thursday.

“Considering the information provided publicly by the deponent Mr. Walter Delgatti Neto before the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on this date, the defense of former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, informs that it will adopt the appropriate legal measures against the deponent, who presented false information and allegations, totally devoid of any type of proof, including committing, in theory, the crime of slander,” Bolsonaro's lawyers said in a statement.

Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Edson Fachin had allowed Delgatti to remain silent during his testimony before the CPMI following a preventive habeas corpus filed by the hacker's defense.

Delgatti said that the former head of state had promised him in a telephone conversation a presidential pardon if he took over an alleged wiretap against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Delgatti also said that, at Bolsonaro's request, he had guided the Armed Forces in preparing the report on the electronic ballot boxes presented in 2022.

Regarding the meeting at the Alvorada Palace (Brazil president's residence), Bolsonaro's attorneys argued that the conversation was about the “alleged vulnerability in the electoral system”.

“The then President of the Republic, in the presence of witnesses, ordered the Ministry of Defense to investigate the allegations, according to legal procedures and in accordance with republican principles, following the same standard of conduct observed in all his actions as head of state. After that event, the former President was never again in the presence of that witness or had any kind of direct or indirect contact with him,” the lawyers said.

Delgatti told the Federal Police (PF) that he received R$ 40,000 (around US$ 8,000) from Bolsonarist Congresswoman Carla Zambelli to hack into the system of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and insert false documents and release permits, according to the computing expert's lawyer Ariovaldo Moreira. Delgatti thus ratified what he had said in his first statement to the PF in São Paulo last month.

“As well as confirming it, he has produced more evidence that he is telling the truth,” the lawyer told the press on Wednesday. The R$ 40,000 were paid in bank deposits and cash delivered by a Zambelli aide, the counselor added while hoping Delgatti would now be released from jail, where he has been since Aug. 2 on a warrant issued by STF Justice Alexandre De Moraes.

“The defense of Congresswoman Carla Zambelli reiterates that it will only express its opinion once it has full knowledge of the contents of the case file - which has not yet happened, including the aforementioned testimony, but reinforces and rejects any accusation of illicit and immoral conduct by the congresswoman, including denying any type of payment to the aforementioned hacker,” the lawmaker's lawyers said also through a statement.

Zambelli only admits to paying Delgatti R$ 3,000 (around US$ 600) to make improvements on her website and social networks. She also said she introduced Delgatti to Liberal Party (LP) Chairman Valdemar Costa Neto and to Bolsonaro. According to Zambelli, the hacker wanted to offer his services to the LP, participating in a possible audit of the electronic ballot boxes. However, Zambelli said that the deal was not closed.

Delgatti became notorious for illegally extracting messages exchanged between Sergio Moro, then judge of Operation Lava Jato, and former Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, which gave rise to the so-called Vaza Jato, exposing the backstage of the operation, thus reinforcing the arguments of critics who accused the Judiciary of selectively leaking confidential information for political purposes, as well as violating due process and the principle of impartiality and abusing preventive detentions as a way of forcing those under investigation to make plea bargains. Hence Delgatti's nickname of Vaza Jato Hacker.

The case led the hacker to prison for the first time in 2019. Released in September 2020, under the obligation to comply with various precautionary measures, such as the use of an electronic anklet and a ban on maintaining contact with other defendants in Operation Spoofing, Delgatti was arrested again in June this year for failing to comply with judicial measures. The hacker spent around a month in prison until he was released once again, with the obligation to wear an anklet again and comply with new precautionary measures. He was free until earlier this month. (Source: Agencia Brasil)