JAKARTA - A Brazilian hacker revealed he was asked by former president Jair Bolsonaro to hack the voting machine in the election, giving him a blank check to pardons from legal consequences.
That was said by computer programmer Walter Delgatti in Thursday's Congressional investigation, showing Brazil's electoral system was vulnerable to fraud during last year's presidential campaign.
Delgatti told lawmakers he met with President Bolsonaro in August, who asked him to discuss the idea with experts at the Ministry of Defense, offering to pardon him if he suffered legal consequences.
"He gave me a blank check to do what I wanted with the voting machine," Delgatti told the investigation.
"The idea is to pick up a machine... so I can install my app there and show residents it's possible to press the button for one voice and end up with another," he explained.
Delgatti further revealed that his meeting with Bolsonaro was regulated by far-right lawmaker Carla Zambelli, who paid 40,000 reais (US $ 8,000) for his services.
However, Delgatti said he had never managed to hack the voting machine, to show manipulated results as asked by Bolsonaro.
This testimony came after an election court ruled that Bolsonaro was not eligible to hold public office until 2030 for abusing his power as president, to undermine confidence in Brazil's electoral system. Bolsonaro's allies fear he will eventually face criminal charges.
A person close to the Bolsonaro family told Reuters that Delgatti's public accusations were "very devastating." His right-wing Liberal Party, which grew to the largest in Congress in the October election, was in crisis mode, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with local broadcaster Jovem Pan after Delgatti's testimony, Bolsonaro rejected the allegations, but confirmed he had met the hacker.
"There was a meeting and I sent him to the Ministry of Defense to talk to the technicians. He was there and the problem subsided," Bolsonaro said.
Separately, Bolsonaro's attorney in a statement said Delgatti provided false information in his testimony, "not having any evidence at all, including committing, in his thesis, slanderous crimes."
He added that Bolsonaro would take appropriate legal action against Delgatti.
Earlier, Bolsonaro spokesman and former press secretary Fabio Wunggarten, also denied Delgatti's statement that Bolsonaro had told him by telephone they had intercepted Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who was leading the investigation into the president's attack on the voting system in Brazil.
"There has never been any wiretapping or illegal or non-republic act against political institutions in Brazil by the president's main circle. Lies, lies, lies," he tweeted.
It is known that Bolsonaro narrowly lost in last year's election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, never admitting defeat and defending his argument since the campaign that the voting system was vulnerable to fraud.
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He himself is facing several investigations into his attacks on the voting system, as well as his alleged role in encouraging his supporters to storm government buildings a week after President Lula took office.
Sources close to the Bolsonaro family, who did not wish to be named in order to speak freely, said Delgatti's testimony made arrest warrants for the former president more likely.
"The evidence provided by hackers, if proven, could lead to an arrest immediately," the source said.
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