Alexandre de Moraes is a ‘rotten orange’ inside Brazil’s Supreme Court, Flávio Bolsonaro says

Flávio Bolsonaro called Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes a “rotten orange” inside Brazil’s highest court, escalating his attacks on the magistrate during a visit to Ponta Grossa, Paraná.

The PL presidential candidate accused Moraes of leading what he described as a “persecution office.” He made the comments while visiting Filipe Martins, a former special adviser to President Jair Bolsonaro who is serving a sentence in a public jail in Paraná for involvement in the coup plot case tried by the Supreme Court.

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This will be my role as president of the Republic: to restore the credibility of institutions, and not to keep protecting people. Because today, Alexandre de Moraes is a rotten orange inside the Supreme Court.

Flávio Bolsonaro said Brazil was living through very difficult times and argued that the Supreme Court as an institution needed protection. He then presented his own stated role as president as restoring the credibility of institutions rather than protecting individuals. “This will be my role as president of the Republic: to restore the credibility of institutions, and not to keep protecting people. Because today, Alexandre de Moraes is a rotten orange inside the Supreme Court,” he said.

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We cannot allow the entire court to become contaminated by this, because the judiciary is not Alexandre de Moraes. That is not the rule among magistrates or judges in this country.

His remarks followed the publication of a Federal Police report identifying Moraes as an interlocutor of Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, in messages found on the former banker’s cellphone. Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça made the report public on Tuesday, and part of the conversation had already been reported by Estadão.

Flávio Bolsonaro said the entire court could not be allowed to become contaminated by the case and argued that Moraes did not represent Brazil’s judiciary or the Supreme Court as a whole. He also said a September 7 rally on São Paulo’s Avenida Paulista would carry the slogan “Out Lula, Out Moraes” and criticized Senate President Davi Alcolumbre for not scheduling impeachment requests against Moraes.

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That is not the rule even inside the Supreme Court. So we have to protect the population from people like Alexandre de Moraes, who is in no condition to continue as a Supreme Court justice.