False: It is false that the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso declared he was against the Workers’ Party (PT) in videos that circulate on social networks. The fake publications use a video from 2021, recorded during Barroso’s vote in a session of the Court, and put it in the current context, as if the minister had recently declared that he was against a government led by the PT. Barroso has not declared support for any of the candidates in these elections.
Investigated Content: Video published on TikTok, and replicated on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Kwai, show Minister Luís Roberto Barroso talking about corruption schemes involving the PT. In the piece investigated, it is possible to read the following sentences: “URGENTE Barroso changes sides !!! Friday 28/Oct/2022”, “Disclose by Sunday!!!!”. The profile responsible for the post on TikTok used the “#bolsonaro” in the caption of the publication.
where it was published: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Kwai.
Completion of Proof: It is false that STF Minister Luís Roberto Barroso has positioned himself for or against any of the candidates vying for the Presidency of the Republic — Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who is seeking reelection, and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( EN) — in this election.
Bolsonaristas rescued a 2021 videowhen Barroso cast his vote on the suspicion of ex-judge Sergio Moro (União Brasil), now a senator elected by Paraná, in the trial of Lula’s cases, in the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, and they edited excerpts to claim that the minister had changed aside, suggesting that before he would support PT and now he would be supporting the current president.
The content was refuted by the STF itself, in an article on the Supreme Court’s portal, stating that it is lie that Barroso has positioned himself on the candidacies. In one of the excerpts, the text says that “Minister Barroso never declared support for any candidate and it is, therefore, fake news”.
False for Comprova is content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disseminated to spread a falsehood.
Scope of publication: Comprova investigates suspicious content with the greatest reach on social networks. As of October 30, content on TikTok has had 213,300 views, 8,095 likes, 529 comments, and 9,666 shares.
What does the publisher say?: Comprova was unable to contact the profile that published the piece targeted by the check, as TikTok does not allow sending messages between users who do not follow each other. The report found the user’s profile on Instagram and asked him about the published piece, but did not get a response until the material was published.
How do we check: First, Google searches for the terms “Barroso”, “apoio” and “Bolsonaro”. Among the results shown by the search engine, there was a publication by the Rumors.org in which it was possible to identify the original video in which Barroso made the comments about the case.
From there, the team watched the video and found that it was an old piece, unlike what the target publication of the check indicated.
A search on the STF website also returned a publication by the Court denying that Barroso had declared support for Bolsonaro. Comprova still tried to contact the author of the publication, but received no response.
Video used in the publication is from 2021
from a video published on Luís Roberto Barroso’s YouTube profile, it is possible to verify that the content was recorded on April 22, 2021 and published the next day, unlike what the content investigated here claims. the publication original it was the minister’s vote in the suspicion of the current senator-elect Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), when he was still a judge, due to partiality in the trial of Lula, in the context of Operation Lava Jato. also in occasionthe majority of the Court, including Justice Barroso, “denied the appeal (regime grievance) brought by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in Lula’s Habeas Corpus (HC) 193726”.
The original recording of the vote is just over 48 minutes long, and right at the beginning, between the minutes 00:04:56 and 00:06:14Barroso informs that he could not talk about the guilt or not of former President Lula in the processes in which he was accused and said, still, he did not act for ideologies, in a different position than what the video investigated here suggests.
“I haven’t read the prosecution, I haven’t read the defence, I haven’t examined the evidence. The criminal process for me revolves around evidence. It has no opinion, no ideology, no personal preferences. It has proof or it has no proof, as it should be. And, therefore, I make it clear that no word in the vote that I will be casting, involves any judgment about the culpability or non-culpability of the former president (Lula). I will only contextualize the general environment in which, in my view, this specific discussion takes place, but not regarding the case of the ex-president, but the discussion about the performance of the 13th Federal Court, its competence and possible suspicion of the judge (Sergio Moro) who was the titleholder for a long period”, says Barroso in the video excerpt.
Cuts in the video change the meaning of Barroso’s speech
The false content took the minister’s sentences out of context, when he was analyzing the regimental grievances, changed the order of the speech and inserted in the video, more than once, the mention of “PT and its leaders (chiefs)”, while Barroso mentions a sequence of other acronyms — PSDB, PP and PMDB (today MDB) — and does not mention the Workers’ Party repeatedly as in the piece investigated here. The cuts in the recording are made to alter the meaning of Barroso’s speech.
The edited video begins with the following sentence: “The PT and its heroes created a parallel world, of cunning and dishonesty, which naturalized the wrong things in the country, to loot the country, sometimes for the benefit of the party and for sometimes for their own benefit. Looting the Brazilian state and, ultimately, looting the Brazilian people.”
Barroso’s speech in the original video, from the minute 00:13:45, is as follows: “Corruption among us, I have already said here, was an oligarchic pact, celebrated between part of the political class, part of the business class and part of the state bureaucracy to loot the country, sometimes for the benefit of the party and sometimes for its own benefit. Looting the Brazilian State and, ultimately, looting the Brazilian people. A parallel world of cleverness and dishonesty was created that naturalized the wrong things in the country”.
When the minister cites the Workers’ Party in terms of the video investigated here, he was referring to the book by journalist Malu Gaspar, “The Organization”, and also mentioning other subtitles that were listed in her publication, as can be seen from the minute 00:14:40 on. “It’s all there: the PT and its leaders, the PSDB and its leaders, the PP and its leaders, the PMDB and its leaders with the fees and, in many cases, with the names of the undeclared accounts. in tax havens”.
The investigated video also intersperses Barroso’s speech with images of Lula and former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), although this resource was not used during the minister’s vote.
Barroso denies that he supported Bolsonaro or another candidate
The cabinet of Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the STF, denied that he had supported president and reelection candidate Jair Bolsonaro, or any other candidate for elected office. In a note published on the STF portal, last Saturday (29), Barroso reinforced that he has no side in the political dispute. “Minister Barroso has never declared support for any candidate and it is, therefore, fake news”, he writes.
“My role is to interpret the Constitution and the laws impartially. My side is always what is right, just and legitimate. This includes tackling corruption and also defending democracy. I fulfill my life’s mission – to make a better and bigger country – and in carrying it out I’m not afraid of displeasing anyone,” said Barroso. The minister’s office also reported that he “has always had and continues to have a strict position in relation to duly documented, proven and impartial cases of corruption”.
The STF also warned of the importance of not passing on information published on unreliable platforms and with alarmist data or conspiracy theories. To make society aware of the importance of preventing the spread of false news about the STF and its ministers, the Supreme launched the series “#VerdadesdoSTF”in which false or misrepresented contents attributed to the Court and its ministers are the object of clarification.
Moro was considered partial and Lula no longer responds to lawsuits
Target of Lava Jato for suspicions involving a triplex in Guarujá and a farm in Atibaia (both in São Paulo), Lula had been sentenced, in July 2017, by Sergio Moro for corruption and money laundering in the triplex case. The conviction was confirmed in the second instance and, in april 2018, Lula was arrested. The former president has always pleaded not guilty.
Lula was released after 580 days and, in March of last year, the STF annulled the convictions for understanding that he did not have his rights respected. According to the agency, the cases could not have been processed in the Courts of Curitiba. as showed the Sheet, “according to the magistrates, Moro’s competence was restricted to schemes directly related to Petrobras and the accusations against Lula involve other public bodies that go beyond the state oil company”. In June 2021, the Supreme Court also ruled that Moro it was partial in your judgment. In April of this year, the UN concluded that Lula’s political rights had been violated.
why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and the presidential elections. False or misleading publications involving public authorities can generate misinterpretations of reality and influence voters at the time of voting. Citizens have the right to make their choices based on true and reliable information.
Other checks on the topic: O Rumors.org made a check in which it denied a content that addresses the same topic.
Recently, Comprova carried out checks involving STF ministers and other public bodies. In them, Comprova showed that Alexandre de Moraes did not say he will have voters arrested who complain about the polls; what is false that TSE application does not allow complaints against PT is that external audits attest to the reliability of the electoral system in the 1st round.
This weekend, the Comprova team joined 6 other fact-checking initiatives in Brazil to jointly verify election misinformation. The partnership brings together AFP, Aos Fatos, Boatos.org, Comprova, E-Farsas, Fato ou Fake and Lupa.
Investigated by A Gazeta, Correio do Estado and O POVO. Verified by Estadão, O Popular, Imirante.com, Folha de S.Paulo, Plural Curitiba, CBN Cuiabá, NEXO, O DIA, Correio Braziliense and Metrópoles.
Source: CNN Brasil
