Justice Minister Sergio Moro is attempting to connect four hackers suspected of hacking his phone with the Lava Jato message leak. The four were recently taken into custody by the federal police.
The arrest warrant, however, includes no mention of such a connection.
In his decision, Judge Vallisney de Souza Oliveira pointed to "strong evidence" that the four investigated "teamed up to violate the telephone confidentiality of several Brazilian authorities via the Telegram application."
Federal Police reported yesterday that it had identified suspicious financial movements of those involved. One of them, Gustavo Santos, moved R$ 424,000 between April and June 2018, although he only has a monthly income of R$ 2,866. His companion, Suelen, also moved R$ 203,000 from March to May 2019, on a monthly income of R$ 2,192.
Glenn Greenwald, the founder of The Intercept, a website that reiterates it has obtained messages from anonymous sources, said Moro "is cynically trying to exploit these suspects to cast doubt on the authenticity of journalistic material."
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon