Brazil’s Lava Jato corruption investigation could self-destruct

IT WAS BRAZIL’S most controversial trial since Tiradentes (“Toothpuller”) was hanged in 1792 for plotting in Minas Gerais against Portuguese colonial rule. In July 2017 Sergio Moro, a crusading young judge, convicted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a popular former president, of corruption, sentencing him to nine years in jail for receiving a beachside apartment from a construction magnate who obtained padded government contracts. This week that conviction was called into question after the Intercept, an investigative news website, published hacked messages from Mr Moro and Deltan Dallagnol, the chief prosecutor in the case, which appear to throw doubt on the judge’s impartiality and the integrity of the prosecution.

For several reasons, Lula’s situation may not change much. But the sprawling anti-corruption investigation known as Lava Jato (Car Wash) may have suffered a fatal blow. The Intercept claims to have “an enormous trove” of hacked messages, many of them on Telegram, an encrypted communications app. In some ways, the material published so far amounts to less than is claimed.