Sérgio Moro takes vacation to participate in gov’t transition

Federal Judge Sérgio Moro, future justice and public security minister, is going on vacation this Monday (Nov. 5) to work in the government transition. Moro plans to take all holidays he is entitled to before resigning from his post early in January.

Deputy Judge Gabriela Hardt will take his place. Moro’s vacation will last until November 21.

In an internal document, the judge wrote he would file a new request for vacation lasting from November 21 to December 19. It does not say how many vacations he is yet entitled to take. His necessary resignation following President-Elect Bolsonaro’s invitation to become minister was a decision he made “with a certain grief,” Moro wrote.

No official request to quit has been made, but the judge stated he would do it before taking the helm of the ministry, “early in January, shortly before taking office.”

Also on Monday, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s counsel filed a new motion for his liberty with the Supreme Court, arguing that Judge Moro’s decision to join the government shows the judge’s partiality and proves his acts were “politically motivated.”

Lula’s lawyers want Moro’s bias as a trial judge to be recognized, so that the motions targeting Lula—including those leading up to his conviction—lose their effect.