President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party, PT) said on Thursday (27) that the accusations against his son Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, are "conjecture". He made the remarks in an interview with TV Globo, Brazil's largest network, broadcast live from the Globo Studios in Rio de Janeiro after the Jornal Nacional newscast.
"They are conjectures, conjectures and conjectures taken from phone calls", Lula said, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The president said his son must defend himself and guaranteed there will be no government interference in the investigation. He also accused the Federal Police of leaking information to the press. "I know this very well because I have lived through it", he said, referring to the Car Wash corruption probes that targeted him in the past.
Criticism of former chief of staff
Lula also criticized the conduct of his former presidential chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, known as Marcola. According to the investigations, businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger paid R$ 217,000 in credit card bills, a vehicle loan and other expenses of the former aide. He says the money was loans.
"It is not appropriate, it is totally wrong, and Marcola knows the mistake he made, because that is not the role of a chief of staff."
The president said he believes Marcola's account that the payments were loans, but demanded answers from his former aide: "Why didn't he talk to me? I told him: 'man, I am almost like a father to you.' Did he make a mistake? He will pay for the mistake he made."
Asked about Luchsinger's phone messages in which Lulinha is mentioned, Lula called the lobbyist a "pilantra", a Portuguese word for a crook. "What can a crook do on a phone, or anyone on a phone? The fact that a conversation was picked up on a phone justifies absolutely nothing", he said. About the businesswoman, he added: "I do not know this woman. She has never been near me. A hustler is the same anywhere in the world."
Luchsinger's ties to the Planalto presidential palace remain under Federal Police investigation. The Lula interview was part of a TV Globo series with the six best-polling presidential candidates ahead of the October election. The series continues on Friday (28) with senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).