Brazil court acquits 2014 winning presidential ticket

After four days of trial, the majority of Superior Electoral Court (TSE) justices voted against the annulment of Rousseff and Temer's 2014 winning presidential ticket for allegations of abuse of political and economic power. The 3-3 tie was broken by the vote cast by Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes.

While casting his ballot, Mendes mentioned he was left in charge of drafting the case report at the request of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in a bid to reopen the probe into the accounts of Rousseff and Temer's 2014 campaign. He said, however, that the request aimed at having a review conducted, not at immediate conviction. “It is not a matter of abuse of economic power, but rather money from the campaign whose target was left unspecified. First the trial, then the conviction—this is how it should be done, rather having conviction as the goal. The matter is a delicate one, as its backdrop is the sovereignty of the people,” he argued.

Also voted for acquittal Justices Napoleão Nunes Maia, Admar Gonzaga, and Tarcísio Vieira. Justices Luiz Fux and Rosa Weber voted as did Justice Herman Benjamin, in favor of annulling the ticket.

Four of the seven justices understood there was not enough evidence to invalidate the ticket. The majority also believes that the plea bargain statements by former executives from construction giant Odebrecht should not be brought into the trial as this had not been demanded in the original request, submitted by the PSDB in 2014.

The case

In December 2014, the campaign accounts of then President Dilma Rousseff and vice-President Michel Temer were unanimously “approved with reservations” by the electoral court. The case, however, was reopened after the party lodged a suit for suspected irregularities in transfers to printing works providing services to Rousseff and Temer during their campaign. That same year, Herman Benjamin, who drafted the report for the case, included the plea bargain statements made by former Odebrecht executives as part of Operation Car Wash. The former execs heard recounted they carried out illegal transactions benefiting the electoral campaign.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira