Brazil hacker claims Bolsonaro, MP paid him to tamper with elections
3 Min Read
The hacker reveals that MP Carla Zambelli paid for the ballot tampering and a false warrant against Supreme Judge Alexander de Moraes, and paid him 40,000 Brazilian reais which is approximately $8,000.
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Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro with some of his ministers in Brasilia on January 2, 2019 (AFP)
A Brazilian hacker Walter Delgatti confessed to a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday that former President Jair Bolsonaro promised to pardon him in case of legal consequences if he tampered with an electronic ballot box during the country's 2022 presidential election.
Infamous for leaking former Brazilian Judge Sergio Moro's WhatsApp chats and hacking into the National Council of Justice and the country's judiciary, Delgatti claimed that he met with Bolsonaro at his official residence in 2022, which was arranged by right-wing lawmaker Carla Zambelli. Bolsonaro allegedly requested Delgatti to hack into the ballot boxes as part of an equipment security check.
The hacker stated to the inquiry: "The conversation was about the ballot boxes, and the elections, and the integrity of the ballot boxes, and it was very technical until the president said: 'Look, I do not understand the technical part, I will send you to the defense ministry, where you will explain all this to the technicians'".
When asked if Bolsonaro offered him a guarantee of protection for what he would do, Delgatti said that the former president offered that he "would receive a pardon from the president."
"I was waiting for this pardon, and he [Bolsonaro] offered it to me that day," Delgatti expressed.
Read next: Bolsonaro out of public office until 2030, court rules
Let it be a 'You' problem
The inquiry was also notified by Delgatti that during the arranged meeting, he heard that the government was tapping the phone of Supreme Federal Court judge Alexandre de Moraes - and Bolsonaro asked Delgatti to claim responsibility for it.
Zambelli was the one who paid for the ballot tampering and a false warrant against de Moraes, to which Delgatti added that she paid him 40,000 Brazilian reais which is approximately $8,000.
This comes just two days after Brazilian authorities revealed that they are investigating Bolsonaro's participation in the theft of official gifts, which initially made headlines in March and involved lavish gifts from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
According to one of Brazil's conservative publications, in October 2021, Sao Paulo airport customs authorities intercepted a €3 million (£2.6 million) set of diamond earrings that a military official traveling with one of Bolsonaro's ministers attempted to bring in his backpack without registering. Bolsonaro administration attempted, but failed, to retrieve the jewelry, which was allegedly a gift from Saudi Arabia to the then-first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, after spending 3 months in the US state of Florida after his election loss, has made few public appearances since returning to Brazil in March to serve as honorary president of his Liberal Party (PL).
He faces a raft of other legal woes, from five Supreme Court investigations that could potentially send him to jail -- including over the January 8 riots -- to police probes into allegations of a faked Covid-19 vaccination certificate and diamond jewelry snuck into Brazil from Saudi Arabia.
