The senator, a 51-year-old soldier who created a security company and gave courses in the United States to police forces, the FBI and the DEA, later announced on Instagram that he was resigning from his seat in the Senate for the state of Espírito Santo.
Do Val said that he was fed up with pressure and disappointed in politics and that, after four years as a senator, he will present his resignation although he still has four years left in his term to settle in the United States.
“It makes me angry when they called me a Bolsonarista. The offenses that I have been receiving are weighing heavily on my family”, Do Val said goodbye.
riot
Bolsonaro has been at the center of a storm since thousands of his supporters invaded and vandalized the offices of the Presidency, Congress and the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on January 8 to trigger a state of commotion and a military intervention.
The action came after Bolsonaro spent months warning without evidence of an alleged electoral fraud against him to favor Lula da Silva, who assumed the Presidency on January 1 after defeating the former president in a tight ballot on October 30, 2022.
Do Val denounced that a Bolsonaro ally asked him, in a meeting in which the then president participated, to get the highest electoral authority, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, to make compromising comments in a conversation that he had to record.
Bolsonaro “sat in silence” as former lawmaker Daniel Silveira suggested the plan, the senator said. Silveira was arrested yesterday for violating a precautionary measure issued against him last week.
Do Val’s statement is the strongest evidence yet known to support allegations that the far-right leader tried to overturn the election result.
Flight?
Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida 48 hours before Lula’s inauguration without ever acknowledging his defeat. He is being investigated by Judge De Moraes himself in the STF for his possible role in encouraging the riots staged by his supporters.
Silveira, a former police officer from Rio de Janeiro, was mentioned by Do Val as the person who organized the meeting to persuade him to join the conspiracy, which he described as “a strange, immoral and even criminal action,” according to the weekly Veja, which reported for the first time of the alleged conspiracy.
Do Val told the magazine that he later met Bolsonaro for 40 minutes at the Planalto Palace, where Silveira explained the plan to him.
Do Val maintained that Silveira told Bolsonaro that he was a trustworthy person and asked the president to present him with “the idea that would save Brazil,” according to Veja’s report.
Silveira, a staunch Bolsonaro ally who backed the former president’s attacks on Brazil’s electronic voting system, was arrested yesterday by police.
Do Val’s resignation came a few hours after the deputies and senators took office.
In the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira was re-elected president, not only confirming expectations, but also achieving a record vote, with more than 92% of the votes after the agreement of fifteen benches.
In the Senate, the fight was somewhat more close, but finally Rodrigo Pacheco revalidated his mandate, defeating Bolsonaro Rogério Marinho thanks in part to pressure from Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party (PT).
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro remains in Orlando, United States, where he arrived on December 30, so he did not hand over the baton to his left-wing successor.
His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, denied that the former president had not returned to Brazil for fear of possible measures against him due to the coup attacks on January 8 and assured that “it is not him who has to be afraid of being arrested” (see separate note ).
Source: Ambito
