ON JUNE 9,  The Intercept began  reporting a series of exposé s  about unethical and corrupt behavior by then-Judge Sergio Moro, now the powerful justice minister for President Jair Bolsonaro, based on a massive archive of secret documents provided to us by an anonymous source. As The Guardian  reported on Wednesday  regarding retaliatory investigations launched by Moro&rsquo s Federal Police against us in an attempt to intimidate and punish us for this reporting, our  articles &ldquo have had an explosive impact on Brazilian politics and dominated headlines for weeks.&rdquo

Once revered across the political spectrum, Moro  &mdash widely regarded as the linchpin of the Bolsonoro government&rsquo s credibility &mdash is now engulfed in a deepening scandal. Two weeks ago, he  defended himself for nine hours  before a hostile Brazilian Senate, and  on Tuesday, spent almost seven more hours in the Congress doing the same until his testimony was  interrupted by a furious screaming match  &mdash prompted by a congressperson  calling him a &ldquo thief judge&rdquo &mdash that came close to physical confrontation:

 

An  op-ed in the New York Times  on Friday by Vanessa Barbara  illustrates how rapidly and radically Moro&rsquo s reputation has fallen both in Brazil and internationally. The article summarizes the crux of our reporting this way: &ldquo All in all, the leaks reveal an immoral judge, who teamed up with electorally-motivated prosecutors, in order to arrest and convict individuals that they already considered guilty. Their only question was how best to do it.&rdquo The Times&rsquo s headline perfectly captures the essence of this scandal for the Bolsonaro government:

Moro&rsquo s key media supporters have abandoned him: The center-right paper Estadã o, long one of his most vocal cheerleaders, called for his resignation after the first week of our reporting. Polling data shows that his approval rating, just after the first week of our reporting,  began falling sharply. And the right-wing president of the Senate &mdash installed in  February based on an expectation that he would loyally support the agenda of the Bolsonaro government &mdash said that  Moro&rsquo s behavior  was  so unethical that he would be &ldquo imprisoned&rdquo   if he were not the justice minister. The  Senate has demanded  that both Moro and Finance Minister Paulo Gedes appear to explain what appears to be their abuse of police power to investigate us.

This scandal has grown  as our reporting has  continued. To accelerate the reporting, prevent claims that we have been ideologically selective in choosing what to disclose, and obliterate Moro&rsquo s desperate attempt to cast doubt on the authenticity of the material in the archive, we have partnered with several of Brazil&rsquo s most mainstream journalistic outlets &mdash   including its largest newspaper, Folha of Sã o Paulo, and a longtime right-wing journalist, Reinaldo Azevedo of the Band News radio network &mdash to jointly report on these incriminating revelations.

But today&rsquo s events have elevated Moro&rsquo s crisis to an entirely new level. The largest weekly newsmagazine in Brazil is the center-right Veja, which has been one of Moro&rsquo s most vocal and devoted supporters for years, repeatedly putting his image on its influential covers in heroic postures. But now, Veja is also  partnering with us  to report on the archive, and  on Friday,  we co-published  a devastating cover story  that lays out in detail, with multiple newly released private conversations involving Moro, how pervasive, sustained, and comprehensive was his corruption.

The eight-page  cover story features some of the most incriminating leaked conversations yet, demonstrating that Moro&rsquo s misconduct was not sporadic or episodic but &ldquo reveals how Moro abused his judicial function as part of a cabal, commanding the actions of the prosecutors of Car Wash.&rdquo In sum: &ldquo The communications analyzed by the Veja reporting team are true and the story shows that the case is even more grave than previously known.&rdquo    

The case is even more grave than previously known.

The Guardian, in  an article  published Friday with the headline  &ldquo Calls grow for Bolsonaro ally to quit after &lsquo devastating&rsquo report on leaks,&rdquo explained that &ldquo Moro is facing renewed pressure to resign after the country&rsquo s leading conservative magazine waded into a snowballing scandal over his role in a mammoth anti-corruption investigation that helped reshape South America&rsquo s political landscape.&rdquo

Perhaps even more significantly is Veja&rsquo s  extraordinary &ldquo Note to Readers,&rdquo in which the magazine explains why it concluded that  its journalistic duty was to expose Moro&rsquo s corruption after years of applauding him detail the journalistic methods used to authenticate the material and unflinchingly describe why Moro&rsquo s conduct as a judge is a grave threat to the rule of law and the pillars of democracy.

On the front page of its widely read site,  the magazine accuses Moro not merely of engaging in unethical or  improper acts &mdash the words we have used thus far to describe his behavior &mdash but also &ldquo illegal&rdquo ones. That Brazil&rsquo s largest center-right magazine, in partnership with The Intercept, is now explicitly accusing Bolsonaro&rsquo s justice minister of &ldquo illegalities&rdquo &mdash based on detailed accusations proven by Moro&rsquo s own words in secret &mdash is as significant as journalism gets.

Perhaps most amazingly, Veja candidly acknowledges, and clearly appears to regret, its own role in helping Moro construct a public image as some sort of superhero, a  high priest  of ethics and propriety who was beyond reproach &mdash a myth that, as we all now know, was deeply deceptive. At the top of its letter to readers explaining why it is exposing Moro&rsquo s conduct &mdash headlined: &ldquo About principles and values&rdquo &mdash Veja displays five different covers over the past several years that it published heralding Moro&rsquo s virtue, along with this caption: 

TREATED AS A HERO
The ex-judge Serio Moro was on the cover of VEJA in diverse situations, the majority favorable: while he has been fundamental in the fight against corruption, one cannot close one&rsquo s eyes in the face of the irregularities  he committed.

In sum, Veja, along with The Intercept and Folha, has devoted massive editorial resources to exposing Moro&rsquo s misconduct in defense of a simple but crucial principle, as described by its letter to readers: &ldquo Ultimately, nobody  is above the law.&rdquo Ironically, that motto was, for years, the rallying cry of Moro&rsquo s supporters, and it is now the principle that is finally bringing serious accountability to his own grave misconduct.

This new article demonstrates, comprehensively and with finality, that the true chief of the  Car Wash prosecutions was the same person who pretended to be, and was ethically obligated to be, the neutral judge: Sergio Moro, now the most powerful official in the Bolsonaro government, overseeing vast powers of surveillance, investigation, and law enforcement previously dispersed among various agencies but now all consolidated under his control.  Moro&rsquo s conduct was a serious corruption of the judicial system &mdash not only for the defendants whose rights he violated but for all future defendants who are in jeopardy of a legal system that no longer requires the most basic obligation to ensure credibility and legitimacy: a neutral, impartial judge.

We began our reporting by  explaining our rationale  for why we believed that disclosure of this massive secret archive  was so critical for Brazilian democracy. In doing so, we wrote: &ldquo Given the immense power wielded by these actors, and the secrecy  under which they have &mdash until now &mdash been able to operate, transparency is crucial for  Brazil and the international community  to have a clear understanding of what they have really done. A free press exists to shine a light on what the most powerful figures in society do in the dark.&rdquo

That &mdash transparency for the corrupt acts by powerful officials &mdash continues to be our governing value and primary objective in this reporting. The threats from Moro and the Bolsonaro government &mdash including the abuse of the Federal Police commanded by Moro to investigate our finances &mdash will, needless to say, not deter the reporting in the slightest.

Quite the contrary: This new joint article with Veja, published 48 hours after news broke of the Federal Police retaliation against us, is a major advancement of  our originally stated goal.  With respect to the part of this story concerning Moro&rsquo s unethical, improper collaboration with the prosecutors, this latest article &mdash on the cover of  Brazil&rsquo s highly influential  center-right weekly news magazine &mdash reveals just how comprehensive, reckless, and sustained  Moro&rsquo s  misconduct was.