(CNN) — The Federal Police of Brazil found a proposed decree that proposes the introduction of a state of emergency to annul the results of the country’s presidential elections. The document was found while the agents were searching the house of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, according to the current Justice Ministry spokeswoman, Lorena Ribeiro.
Torres, who was former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice until December 31, 2022, issued a statement on social media denying being the author of the decree.
“As Minister of Justice, we are faced with hearings, suggestions and proposals of the most diverse types,” he wrote. “In my house there was a pile of discarded documents, where the material described in the article was most likely found,” he added. “Everything would be taken to be shredded at the Ministry of Justice at the time.”
Torres also suggested that the proposed decree had been leaked to the media to “feed fallacious narratives” against it.
“The subpoenaed document was picked up while I was not there and leaked out of context, helping to fuel fallacious narratives against me. We were the first ministry to deliver management reports for the (power) transition,” he said. “I respect Brazilian democracy. I have a clear conscience regarding my role as Minister.”
The document found this Tuesday, according to Ribeiro, mentioned the installation of a state of emergency in the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) while Bolsonaro was still president, to annul the electoral victory of the current president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.
The state of emergency is when the president can interfere in other government areas to ensure public order. CNN has not seen the document.
The Federal Police, according to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, discovered the document while carrying out a search and arrest warrant at Torres’ house on Tuesday. The draft had not been signed by former President Jair Bolsonaro.
After leaving the government, Torres took over as head of Security for the Federal District of Brasilia, but was fired this Sunday after protesters broke through police barriers and entered government buildings. He had traveled to Orlando, Florida, supposedly on vacation, just days before the riots and was there as the events unfolded.
Torres vowed to shorten his vacation and face justice after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search and arrest warrants, denying any wrongdoing.
The documents were first reported by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo this Thursday afternoon around 3:40 pm (local time). About an hour later, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Ribeiro confirmed to CNN that the documents had been found.
Responding to Brazil’s Federal Police finding the proposed decree, Brazil’s Justice Minister Flavio Dino told CNN Brazil on Thursday that it was “appalling” and said that what the proposed decree called for was “unconstitutional.” ”.
“I did not have access to the document and according to press reports it was a coup decree that emphasizes what we saw on January 8, which was not an isolated case, it was an element of a chain, a link in a coup chain in Brazil. that he had preparatory and surprising acts, such as a decree of military intervention in the Electoral Tribunal, which is unconstitutional,” said Dino.
He also criticized Torres for keeping the document at his home. “A public agent, upon learning of a crime, should not have that document in his house. It is something that really shows the will to close the Supreme Court, the Congress, to impede the freedom of the Brazilian people to choose their rulers. And all the attempts failed, including the one on January 8.”
“What I can tell the Brazilian nation is that if someone gives me a document of this nature, they would be arrested, because it is criminal. He wouldn’t keep it, he wouldn’t shred it,” Dino said.
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