Capstone Report

One more amazing thing about Brazil and Lula's campaign: The NYT today has a gushing profile of a Congressman named @AndreJanonesMG, who became the face of Lula's campaign, its chief communication strategist. and -- as a result of admittedly innovative though extremely creepy digital strategies -- the greatest hero of the Brazilian left. But listen to what the article doesn't mention: Just 2 years ago -- not 20 years ago or 10 years ago, but 2 years ago -- Janones got caught committing one of the most despicable crimes imaginable: he forced his Congressional staff employees to transfer a portion of their (quite low) monthly public salary to him as a condition for keeping their jobs. The money he stole from his workers didn't go to his campaign: it just went to enrich himself, into his pocket,. He got caught when the employees secretly taped him angrily telling them they should stop complaining. When all this emerged, the left-wing members of Congress loyal to Lula -- who, remember, claims to lead a movement of workers! The name of Lula's party is the Workers Party -- protected him from all consequences from stealing the salary of his workers. The pro-Lula judiciary let Janones confess guilt and simply pay back the money that he stole. And yet this doesn't bother anyone on the Brazilian left. Janones has become a beloved figure overnight among left-wing celebrities and is now one of Lula's closest allies. The NYT profile doesn't even mention this in their gushing profile. In the scheme of Brazil's authoritarianism, it's not the biggest issue, but to me it's one of the most revealing about what frauds these people are:

The WashPost -- like the WSJ -- has an editorial today sounding the alarm on Brazil's authoritarianism. Its point -- like mine and everyone's -- isn't that Bolsonaro is innocent. It's that Judge Alexandre de Moraes is a tyrant who persecutes political enemies with no limits.

CRUCIAL FACTS ON THE FLAVIO BOLSONARO MATTER: It's not just Flavio Bolsonaro who fled Brazil to escape the tyrannical persecution of Alexandre de Moraes and the pro-Lula wing of the Supreme Court. There are dozens of Brazilian exiles who have done the same: dissident journalists, activists, bloggers, and politicians who all fled to avoid certain prison for political opposition. In most of these cases, Moraes has demanded the extradition of those who fled and whom he wants to imprison back in Brazil. But Moraes' extradition requests have been repeatedly denied by multiple countries and institutions on the grounds that these prosecutions are politically motivated or otherwise corrupted. Among those concluing this: Spain, Italy, INTERPOL, and even the US under Biden. Just today, Italy refused Brazil's demand to extradite a person named @edutagli, who was once a top aide to Moraes, but then fled to Italy after Moraes accused him of having been my source in a huge leak from Moraes' office that I obtained for reporting I did with @Folha in 2024. That massive leak enabled us to publish roughly 20 articles proving systemic abuses of power by Moraes against his political enemies: exactly the reason so many Brazilians, including Bolsonaro, know they can't get a fair trial in Brazil. Italy today refused to extradite the person accused of being our source on the grounds that the proceedings would be a farce because Moraes — as he so often does — wants to act as the supposed victim, investigator, and judge, and thus his demand falls well outside of Italy's extradition standards. Again, multiple countries have concluded the same, showing what a farce Brazil's once-respected judicial system has become under the Lula/Moraes regime. Moraes has overseen a system of political persecution masquerading as criminal justice that has been recognized as a sham by multiple countries that are not exactly Bolsonaro allies. Nobody in their right mind who is a political enemy of Moraes would remain in Brazil once if it is clear that he intends to imprison you, since he has proven that guilt is a foregone conclusion and he operates with no legal or constitutional limits of any kind. That is why asylum under international law exists: to protect those who cannot obtain justice in their own country because the justice system has been corrupted and commandeered for political persecution. Many people, such as Julian Assange, have needed that protection (which Lula cheered). Now people need it from Moraes in Brazil. That is sadly one of the main legacies of both Lula and Moraes over the last six years.

If, by the way, the same situation that just happened in Brazil had happened but with the parties switched -- if Bolsonaro had won last night's election and then a pro-Bolsonaro judge sent the Federal Police to seize Lula's passport and bar him from leaving the country -- every major western media outlet and liberal NGOs would be screaming about the authoritarian attack on Brazil's elections and the destruction of basic freedoms.

One day after Lula was declared the winner of Brazil's elections, his opponent -- Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro -- just had had his passport seized by the Federal Police. Theose police were sent by notorious tyrant Judge Alexandre de Moraes. What a lovely democratic image.