Moraes decrees confidentiality of petition in which AGU considers suspension of network

Minister Alexandre de Moraes responded to the request of the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, and placed in secrecy, in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the petition in which the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) requested the sharing of evidence from the investigation into businessman Elon Musk, owner of the social network X.

As shown by People’s Gazette this Wednesday (24), in this document, Messias says that the objective of obtaining evidence is to feed an internal procedure at the AGU to hold the company X Brasil Ltda., based in São Paulo, responsible for the alleged leak of confidential information from investigations conducted by Moraes.

In the petition, he highlights that, in addition to imposing fines on the company that could reach 20% of its revenue, the AGU could ask the Court for the “suspension or partial interdiction of its activities and even compulsory dissolution of the legal entity”.

In practice, this would make the social network unfeasible in Brazil, since Moraes himself demands that internet platforms maintain representation in the country to respond to his court orders.

Messias says that in the “Twitter Files” – reports that revealed emails in which Brazilian lawyers reported to company executives, in the United States, pressure from the STF and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to suspend profiles – confidential information of the inquiries conducted by the minister, which could hinder the investigations.

Hence the request for evidence and the AGU’s objective of holding the company responsible, in Brazil, based on the Anti-Corruption Law (12,846/2013), for the alleged commission of an act harmful to the public administration – in this case, the Judiciary – by “hindering the activity of investigation or inspection of public bodies, entities or agents, or intervene in their activities”.

This is illegal conduct provided for by law and attributed by Messias to X Brasil Ltda.

In the request for sharing of evidence, the Union’s attorney general asked Moraes that the document be kept confidential, “considering the nature of the claim presented and the content of the attached documents”.

“The applicant undertakes to maintain the confidentiality of the information requested, and will promote its addition to the destination files, using the necessary means and instruments to prevent access to the data by third parties”, stated the AGU in the request.

Upon responding to this request, Moraes removed the piece from the digital militia investigation, in which the petition was filed, and placed it to be processed autonomously and confidentially within the STF. As a result, it will not be possible for society to know the content of the minister’s decisions in the case.

In addition to asking for the sharing of evidence, Messias asked the minister to open a new investigation into the X executives, as individuals, to determine whether they committed the crime of obstruction of justice, allegedly embarrassing the investigation into a criminal organization.