Kleber Cabral, president of the National Association of Federal Revenue Auditors (Unafisco), testified to the Federal Police on Friday, February 20, as an investigated party in the Supreme Court’s Fake News Inquiry. The hearing, ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, took place via videoconference and lasted about one hour, under seal of justice. Cabral was summoned after publicly criticizing a PF operation against Revenue Service employees accused of accessing data of STF justices and their relatives.
Kleber Cabral’s testimony took place on February 20, ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the Fake News Inquiry opened by the STF in 2019. Unafisco stated that Cabral was questioned solely for statements to the press following the PF operation on February 17, which executed search and seizure warrants against four Revenue Service and Serpro employees in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bahia. The targets include Ricardo Mansano de Moraes, Luiz Antônio Martins Nunes, Luciano Pery Santos Nascimento, and Ruth Machado dos Santos, accused of illegally accessing information of STF justices and relatives.
Cabral criticized the operation in interviews, stating that auditing authorities and their relatives has become a risky activity for Revenue employees. In a statement to Folha on Thursday, 19, he said: "If you ask within the Revenue if anyone wants to audit organized crime, half a dozen show up, but if you audit politically exposed persons, no one does." He also questioned the proportionality of the measures imposed, such as electronic ankle monitoring, removal from public duties, passport cancellation, and travel bans, applied by order of Moraes.
The Revenue Service clarified in a note that the searches were based on information provided by the agency itself. The Sindifisco Nacional expressed concern over Cabral’s summons, stating that if motivated by his opinions, it violates freedom of expression under the Federal Constitution.
The PF is also investigating possible links between Mansano and Ricardo Pereira Feitosa, former head of Revenue intelligence at the start of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, dismissed in 2023 after accessing data of the ex-president’s adversaries. The relationship between Feitosa and Cabral is under scrutiny. In his testimony, Mansano argued that he accessed data of Maria Carolina Feitosa, daughter of lawyer Guiomar Feitosa and former stepdaughter of Justice Gilmar Mendes, while seeking information related to Feitosa, with whom he worked in Cuiabá. The defenses of Mansano and Feitosa deny irregularities and affirm the involved parties’ impeccable reputations.
Cabral recalled a 2018/2019 Revenue audit suspended by Moraes, involving access to data of relatives of Justices Dias Toffoli and Gilmar Mendes, with no confirmed leaks.
