The defense of the companies Rumble and Trump Media requested the US Federal Court to subpoena Federal Supreme Court (STF) minister Alexandre de Moraes for his institutional email, under the justification that the magistrate “blocked” other contact channels.
In the court application, lawyer Martin de Luca argued that the defendant has already used email to contact the companies that filed the lawsuit on several occasions, with the aim of notifying them about the orders to remove content from their platforms, under threat of daily fines and suspension of service in the country.
“He sent a series of ‘Silence Orders’ via email, instructing Rumble — a US-based company — to block US user accounts, hand over US user data and appoint a representative in Brazil. The same channel he used to assert extraterritorial authority is a reliable channel for notification,” says the petition filed in Florida this Monday (2).
The case, opened in the American Federal Court a year ago, has been on hold since August due to a subpoena against Moraes sent to the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). In October, the PGR issued an opinion in defense of the rejection of the notification.
In the summons filed this week, the lawyer for the American companies argues that Moraes’ summons efforts were halted “not because of any deficiency in the plaintiffs’ compliance, but because the summons process has become politicized and effectively inaccessible.” As a result, notification by e-mail appears as “the only way” that allows the case to progress on the merits, according to the defense.
Rumble and Trump Media seek the conviction of Minister Alexandre de Moraes in the US for issuing secret extraterritorial censorship orders.
