Jaques Wagner appeals to Toffoli to end the misconduct case involving Odebrecht

The leader of Lula's administration in the Senate and one of the president's closest allies, Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party (PT), appealed to Dias Toffoli to dismiss a misconduct case against him in the Federal Court of Bahia. The case investigates alleged losses to the public coffers resulting from a BNDES loan for the construction of the Arena Fonte Nova for the 2014 World Cup, led by Odebrecht and OAS. Wagner was governor of Bahia at the time.

The Workers' Party senator's lawyers argued to Toffoli that the lawsuit filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is based on evidence from the Drousys and MyWebDay systems, used by Odebrecht to manage bribe payments to politicians and officials.

This material, presented by the construction company in its leniency agreement, was annulled by the Supreme Federal Court in 2021 in cases against Lula. Since then, this same decision has been extended to several targets of lawsuits filed based on Odebrecht's plea bargains. In 2023, Toffoli extended the annulment of this evidence to all cases involving it.

Wagner wants the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to recognize the invalidity of Odebrecht's evidence in the case involving him in the Federal Court of Bahia, thus dismissing the misconduct case. The senator's defense also asked Toffoli for an injunction to suspend the case, which has an evidentiary hearing already scheduled for next Tuesday, the 5th.

Jaques Wagner's lawyers had already argued to the trial judge, Igor Matos Araújo, that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) invalidated the evidence from Odebrecht's systems. The judge, however, upheld the misconduct case against the senator. Araújo ruled that it had not been demonstrated that the evidence in the case was "effectively derived" from Drousys and MyWebDay.