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> Four congressional commissions asked Sergio Moro to explain details from a scandal that is involving more people each time.

The Lower House summoned Justice Minister Sergio Moro to a hearing on June 26 to testify about The Intercept-leaked audios, in which he and Attorney General Deltan Dallagnol coordinated a joint action to prevent former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running in the 2018 presidential elections.

"The minister is haunted by the Intercept revelations and even more so to come. He must, after all, be remembering much of everything he did," Marcio Jerry, a congressman from the Communist Party (PCdoB), said.

The Human Rights and Minority Commission (CDHM), the Labor, Administration and Public Service Committee (CTASP) and the Financial Control Committee (CFFC) decided to hold a single joint hearing at the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJC).

The information disclosed by The Intercept shows that the then acting federal judge Moro advised prosecutors in several phases of the "Car Wash" case, which was an illegal interference that led to a ban on Lula's candidacy to while remaining in prison and boosted Jair Bolsonaro's chances at winning the presidency.

"Moro was jeered by the crowd at the stadium but the media did not show it."

The Supreme Justice Court vice president Luiz Fux also came under fire Wednesday when new revelation showed that he was involved in the scandal, calling into question the fairness of the trial behind Lula's conviction.

The Intercept Brazil director Leandro Demory revealed Monday that Judge Fuxhad supported Dallagnol and Moro in their actions.

At a private conversation, Dallagnol says, "he said that we should count on him for what we need, once again," to which Moro replied, "Excellent. In Fux we trust".

According to The Intercept, Moro suggested that the prosecutors of Car Wash case change the order of the phases of the operation and other procedures that supposed to be prohibited by law.

The confidential information disclosed have caused a stir in Brazil and led the defense of Lula to reiterate that the leftist politician is a victim of political persecution, prompting them to demand that the trial against him should be declared void.​​​​​​​

In 2017, Moro handed out a sentence of to nine years and six months in prison to Lula for corruption, arguing that he had received a beach apartment in exchange for political favors to the Odebrecht construction multinational company.

"The head of the Car Wash case was no one else than Moro. Dallagnol was a fool. It's proven," Supreme Justice Gilmar Mendes said and added that Moro and Dallagnol committed a crime.

"Simulating a complaint is not just an ethical fault. That's a crime."

While the Brazilians could not get out of their astonishment at The Intercept leaks, Minister Moro and President Bolsonaro met at the Alvorada Palace Tuesday and were later seen together at a military ceremony and at a soccer game in Brasilia on Wednesday night.​​​​​​ in a show of solidarity.

When asked if Bolsonaro still trusts Moro, presidential spokesperson Otavio Rego Barros said that "all the ministers of President Jair Bolsonaro's administration have the confidence of the executive branch head."​​​​​​​
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.