Overview

• The Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee approved, by symbolic vote, a report to suspend the Supreme Federal Court case over alleged insult, defamation and calumny by deputy Gustavo Gayer.
• Relator Zé Haroldo Cathedral argued the remarks were made in the exercise of the mandate and are protected by inviolability, saying any sanction should come from the Council of Ethics and Decorum.
• The case stems from a February 2023 video in which Gayer insulted senators Vanderlan Cardoso and Jorge Kajuru and claimed senators were traded posts, prompting a criminal complaint by Cardoso.
• The PL pressed the request using Article 53 and the tactic applied in the Alexandre Ramagem case to contend the matter concerns parliamentary speech rather than a criminal offense.
• PT, PSB, PDT and government allies opposed the suspension, and the plenary will now decide as the dispute unfolds following the Ramagem episode in which the STF later circumscribed the Chamber’s power to halt cases.