Another "Trump of the Tropics" Parallel: Anti-Corruption Crusading Masks Deep Corruption

In the new secret chats reported by The Intercept, federal prosecutors, while talking to one another after Bolsonaro's victory, were emphatic that these unexplained deposits by Flávio's driver perfectly match other corruption schemes they prosecuted in which political officials hire "phantom employees" who do no work, but collect their salary and then pay back the vast bulk of that money to the political official for his own personal enrichment.

Despite how clear-cut these prosecutors believe Flávio's corruption to be, they expressed in these newly published chats deep worry that, while the investigation of the money movements is in the hands of local investigators, the broader and more serious allegations against Flávio might not be investigated because Moro is concerned about angering Jair Bolsonaro. This is considered likely not only because the corruption case has the president's son as its prime target, but also because it already involves his own wife and could -- given his longtime close friendship with Queiroz -- end up implicating the president himself.

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The Intercept's reporting revealed in June that many Car Wash prosecutors, in their secret chats, were indignant that Moro, after insisting for five years to critics that the Car Wash investigations and convictions were completely apolitical and free of ideology, had joined Bolsonaro's far-right government as a political official, with many complaining that his doing so would forever put into doubt the legitimacy, credibility, and apolitical legacy of their anti-corruption work.