Upon learning he is banned by the Magnitsky Act from setting foot in the United States, Luís Roberto Barroso reacted with a phrase mingling irony and indifference. “There will always be Paris...,” he sneered. The City of Lights, however, is no longer enough, clear changes indicate. Parties and singing performances are less frequent, and the wrinkles on his face reveal sleepless nights. Even his usually impeccable eyebrows are disfigured by two or three stray hairs. His melancholy eases only when he speaks. Barroso loves the sound of his own voice. That must be why he’s more loquacious than ever. On TV shows, at lectures, official ceremonies, and off-the-record conversations, the justice repeatedly claims that, during his two-year tenure as president of the Supreme Court, it definitively restored the health of democracy, which was threatened by those far-right dimwits, and ensured the integrity of the elections that defeated Bolsonarism. “We are still far from perfection,” he asserts, but we will get there. Barroso promises that the Supreme Court will “recivilize Brazil.” Such an audacious project, he proudly declared, includes “the reoccupation by the traditional press of the space lost to the internet.” As he exits the Supreme Court presidency, he states that social media lies profusely, fails to filter its publications, and ultimately pollutes with an immensity of fake news the far more careful reporting of traditional newspapers, TV news, and magazines of yesteryear. Luís Roberto Barroso, presidente do STF - 1º/8/2025 | Foto: Reprodução/YouTube Barroso’s preference makes perfect sense. When he praises the wisdom of Gilmar Mendes, the traditional press finds it unnecessary to recall that the current admirer of the dean once saw a figure “horrible, with hints of psychopathy” in the justice who, for nearly 30 years, has been absolving all his pet scoundrels (some of whom could impress even an American movie serial killer). Nationalized journalism has never seen similarities between Alexandre de Moraes and Lavrenti Beria, head of the secret police during the Soviet Union’s darkest years. “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” Joseph Stalin’s favorite executioner used to reiterate. Journalists endowed with intellectual independence see things as they are and recount events as they happened. The crowd from the old, and now miniaturized, major newspapers and ultramodern futuristic studios has always been far more docile. They tend to what suits the company owner, the advertisers, and the powerful federal establishment. For these domesticated professionals, Moraes is not an incurable bigot who, disguised as a protector of the Democratic Rule of Law, treats the Constitution with punches and kicks. Nostalgic for analog times, it’s only natural that Barroso guides himself by news and analyses as committed to the truth as Dilma Rousseff. Os ministros do STF, Gilmar Mendes e Alexandre de Moraes, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva e o procurador-geral da República, Paulo Gonet, durante a solenidade comemorativa ao Dia do Soldado, em 2024, Brasília | Foto: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil By limiting himself to such sources of information, for instance, the justice will read that “Vaza Toga (‘Robe Leaks’) was an alleged leak of WhatsApp messages and audio.” He will also learn that “some leaked messages allegedly showed, according to the authors of the report series published by Folha de S. Paulo , that justice Alexandre de Moraes acted informally in the Superior Electoral Court, outside normal procedures.” Anyone reading Revista Oeste understands it was far more than that. Texts and audio attest that a Supreme Court justice trampled legal barriers to forge evidence incriminating targets of his persecutory fury. With the help of auxiliary judges and judicial staff, the Brazilian Beria proved even more overbearing than his Soviet original. Moraes personally selected both the prey and the crime to be imputed to them. Subsequently, he would dispatch subordinates to obtain evidence that would justify an indictment, a trial, an arrest — perhaps even the imposition of another ankle monitor, his ultimate fetish. One of the duos frequently mobilized comprised auxiliary judge Ayrton Vieira, Moraes’s chief of staff at the Supreme Court, and forensic expert Eduardo Tagliaferro. On December 6, 2022, at 6:11 PM, Vieira sent Tagliaferro a curt and blunt request: "Let’s round up all these coup-mongering magazines to demonetize them on social media." The message was followed by a Twitter (now X) link to Revista Oeste , known for being a right-wing, anti-Workers’ Party (PT) magazine. "This one and others of the same ilk," Vieira added. Days later, Tagliaferro reported that upon looking into the magazine, he found only journalistic material. He was met with the recommendation that he should resort to his own creativity. The repetition of similar episodes convinced the expert to compile copies of the dialogues. In August 2024, he realized the time had come to break his silence and handed part of the material to journalist Glenn Greenwald. Six years prior, the American journalist had gained notoriety by publishing on The Intercept website the series that would become known as Vaza Jato (Operation Car Wash Leaks). Despite being based on messages exchanged among members of history’s largest and most effective anti-corruption offensive, the reports astonishingly revealed not a single, scarce illegality involving federal judges and prosecutors. A frase "use sua criatividade" virou um símbolo da perseguição promovida pelos assessores de Moraes | Foto: Divulgação/Oeste Honest observers, however, merely witnessed bursts of enthusiasm from law enforcement officials who were rapidly closing in on high-ranking figures from all three branches of government, some even ensconced within the Supreme Court. But the immense club of powerful scoundrels wouldn’t miss the chance to staunch the bleeding, as then-senator Romero Jucá had advised. Hacking someone else’s application is a crime, just as leaking private information is. Yet, the hacker who attacked Operation Car Wash waited only two months for the Supreme Court's protection. And an injunction granted by Gilmar Mendes prevented Greenwald from being investigated or held accountable for what he published. Folha , Estadão , and Veja colluded in orchestrating the most aggressive Brazilian-style Western, a cinematic extravagance where, unlike American shoot-'em-ups, the villains pursue the sheriff (with the help of the capital’s judges). Lula and his henchmen walked free from prison. First-class thieves received back, a courtesy of justice Dias Toffoli, the billions budgeted in plea bargain agreements. Brazil resurrected impunity for grand larceny. And the country plunged into a lawfare dictatorship. The ‘Robe Leaks’ brazenly expose the dark side of a judge who gleefully and eagerly conjugates the verbs “capture,” “arrest,” “punish,” “persecute,” and “chastise” — caring little whether the targets are guilty or innocent. On Wednesday, August 13, Folha de S. Paulo discreetly released the first report in the series dubbed Vaza Toga ‘Robe Leaks’. With no set schedule, without due prominence on prime pages, and failing to draw the attention of competitors, the series was soon interrupted without explanation. This was precisely what Moraes needed to launch a secret inquiry aimed at “investigating the authenticity and origin of the leaks.” As if he were the victim. Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction was not enough for the First Jailer. The persecuted target this time is Tagliaferro, now a refugee in the Calabria region. Moraes requested the Italian government arrest his former associate and extradite him to Brazil. The expert was instructed to stay home, but he already knows he will not be extradited. Incidentally, in 2010, then-lawyer Luís Roberto Barroso successfully ensured that his client Cesare Battisti, a terrorist sentenced to life imprisonment by Italian justice, remained in Brazil as an asylum seeker. Deported during the Bolsonaro administration, Battisti confessed, upon landing, still on the tarmac, that he had indeed committed four murders. Consistency suggests Barroso should disapprove of the extradition of Moraes’s former aide. Ex-chefe da Assessoria Especial de Enfrentamento à Desinformação (AEED) do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), Eduardo Tagliaferro, em pronunciamento via videoconferência na Comissão de Segurança Pública (CSP), em Brasília, DF (2/9/2025) | Foto: Saulo Cruz/Agência Senado Other participants in the criminal scheme orchestrated by Moraes escaped the legal proceedings initiated by their boss, but not U.S. sanctions. Three of them had their visas revoked: Cristina Kusahara, a.k.a. “The Witch,” Moraes’s chief of staff at the Supreme Court, will only see New York in postcards. Judge Ayrton Vieira will have to choose other locales to rest from his toil. Marco Antônio Vargas continues assisting Moraes at the TSE. It would be wise to learn from Tagliaferro’s example. Cesare Battisti com seus apoiadores brasileiros | Foto: José Cruz/Agência Brasil Conceived to investigate the use of a gas station for money laundering, Operation Car Wash launched on March 17, 2014. The arrest of money changer Alberto Youssef led to a network of shortcuts and trails that, courageously and competently unearthed by the Curitiba-based task force, exposed to the world the incredible scandal dubbed Petrolão (‘Big Oil Scandal’). The thievery perpetrated by scoundrels infiltrated at the helm of Petrobrás, in the leadership of the country’s eight largest construction companies, at the apex of all three branches of government, and in the direction of political parties, exceeded R$ 100 billion. Not to mention the pilfering promoted in other countries by the cartel's offshoots tasked with international dealings. Ex-presos na Operação Lava-Jato | Foto: Montgem Revista Oeste/Divulgação Lula returned to the presidency. The pet criminals remain at large. The PCC (‘First Command of the Capital’) continues to expand relentlessly. Moraes has his sights set on Tagliaferro. He undoubtedly reads the same newspapers and magazines recommended by Barroso. + The crisis wears a black robe O post The Truth Always Leaks Out apareceu primeiro em Revista Oeste .