Brazilian justice minister Sergio Moro considered releasing construction giant Odebrecht's confession to paying bribes in Venezuela to harm the country's president Nicolas Maduro, The Intercept investigative website reported on Sunday.

The report came after The Intercept last month began publishing excerpts from leaked chats with Moro, causing a scandal for the former anti-corruption judge who became attorney general under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The Intercept's most explosive report purportedly showed Moro conspiring with prosecutors in a sprawling corruption probe known as Car Wash to keep popular leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva out of the 2018 presidential race.

On Sunday, The Intercept published chats in which Moro considers whether to use information gathered about Odebrecht during the Car Wash investigation against socialist leader Maduro, who has presided over a political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"Maybe we should reveal Odebrecht's confessions about bribes in Venezuela?" Moro said to chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol via the encrypted Telegram messaging app in August 2017.

Earlier in the conversation, Dallagnol had told Moro, "There will be criticism and a price (to be paid), but it's worth exposing oneself to help the Venezuelans."

It remains unclear if the confessions were ever leaked, but Odebrecht has admitted to paying bribes across Latin America, including $98 million in Venezuela -- its biggest payoff outside Brazil.

In a statement, the prosecutor's office in the city of Curitiba, which handled some of the most publicized aspects of the probe, rejected The Intercept's report.

The office said it didn't recognize "the messages attributed to its members in recent weeks. The origin and veracity of the messages, obtained via cybercriminals, cannot be confirmed."

The corruption scandal surrounding Odebrecht, Latin America's biggest construction firm, has stretched across a dozen countries in Latin America and two in Africa, with the company implicated in handing out cash to win lucrative public contracts.

The revelations regarding Moro have led to calls for his resignation along with demonstrations in support of the justice minister.

On Sunday, DataFolha Institute of Research released a poll in which 58 percent of respondents said that Moro's decisions in the Car Wash probe should be reviewed if the claims against him are proven to be true. </s> Under the Brazilian judicial system, the judge and the prosecution are required to operate independently to ensure a fair trial. Yet Moro interfered directly on the case by dictating the prosecutors’ media strategy.

A new leaked conversation by The Intercept shows current Supreme Justice Minister Sergio Moro while serving as a judge in the Car Wash (Lava Jato), directed the prosecutors’ media strategy against former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“The defense already put on their little show,” Moro quickly messaged a senior prosecutor in the Operation Car Wash task force, Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, right after questioning Lula for more than five hours, bracing for media’s take on the hearing.

Under the Brazilian judicial system, the judge and the prosecution are required to operate independently to ensure a fair trial. Yet Moro interfered directly on the case by dictating the prosecutors’ media strategy.

“Maybe, tomorrow, you should prepare a press release explaining the contradictions between his testimony and the rest of the evidence or with his previous testimony,” he ordered Dos Santos.

Immediately the prosecutor messaged his media team suggesting a dramatic shift in the team’s typical communications strategy. Up until that point, they had not commented publicly on the trial proceedings. As the press aides advise against, the chief prosecutor of the Car Wash task force, Deltan Dallagnol, comes in to support the plan.

The next day all major Brazilian news outlet copied the exact statement pushing Moro’s agenda to the public about the alleged "contradictions" in Lula's answers.

Another leak revealed on Tuesday, Moro chats with Dallagnol trying to prevent the task force from investigating right-wing former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, while ignoring evidence that his foundation collected bribes from Odebrecht's subsidiary Braskem. The then-judge asks about the “seriousness” of investigations by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) regarding the former head of state, telling Dallagnol he doesn’t want to "spoil someone whose support is important."

All this comes as Brazil now is facing a political earthquake as The Intercept Brazil published on Sunday an extensive and hard-hitting exposé on the alleged political motivations behind Operation Car Wash against Lula, and unethical involvement of current Supreme Minister of Justice, Moro.

The documents were released in a three-part series where according to The Intercept, it is proven, based on leaked documents and Telegram messages between prosecutors and Moro that the “apolitical” and “unbiased” team spent hours internally plotting how to prevent the return to power by Lula and his party. As well as the lack of hard and documented evidence to establish a case against the former head of state.
New leaked messages between Brazilian judge Sérgio Moro and prosecutors of Operation Car Wash show that Moro suggested they leak confidential information concerning Odebrecht's activities in Venezuela to members of the Venezuelan opposition. Some prosecutors even entertained the possibility of provoking a civil war in Venezuela over the leaks.