Biden Documents, Ukraine Military Shakeup, Bolsonaro Coup Probe

How in the hell dare he raise that?

What does the evidence show?

Police seized the passport of Brazil's former president.

Jair Bolsonaro lost a presidential election.

He tried to overturn his defeat with claims about voting machines.

Now he faces new evidence that he was also planning a military coup.

What caused President Volodymyr Zelensky to call for a renewal as the anniversary of the

war approaches?

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of classified documents.

from his vice presidency.

Yet the same report repeatedly gives reasons that the evidence falls short and would not

be likely to persuade a jury, which is why Robert Heard declined to prosecute.

Ryan, good morning.

materials that FBI agents found in their searches of Biden's homes and office.

One are documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan during the Obama

administration, and the other are handwritten notes that date to Biden's time as vice

president. Biden jotted down notes in these things during intelligence briefings with

President Obama and in White House Situation Room meetings.

Some of this material is classified, and it's some of that material that Hearst says that

Biden shared on at least three occasions, the report says, with a ghostwriter that he

was working with. But as you said, there are no charges here.

The report says ultimately, the evidence doesn't support bringing charges.

It doesn't establish Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Hearst says in the report that it would be hard to prove that Biden willfully intended

to break the law. And it also describes him as a, quote, sympathetic, well-meaning elderly

man with a poor memory and says it would be hard to convince a jury to convict him.

old man with memory problems.

How is the president responding to that?

charges, but that doesn't mean that it can't still create political problems for him.

And the parts of Hearst's report that raised questions about his age and mental acuity

are certainly a case in point.

There's even a line in there that in his interviews with investigators, Biden didn't

remember the year his son, Beau, died.

Biden talked to reporters last night and he took that remark head on.

Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn't any of their

damn business.

And he said there's there's no reason for what he called such extraneous stuff to be

in the report. And he said the bottom line here is that there are no charges and this

investigation is now closed.

classified documents and, of course, is claiming now that he is being treated

differently. What is the response to that?

system in this country. It's worth pointing out that Robert Herr is a Republican.

Before he was appointed special counsel, he served as a U.S.

attorney during the Trump administration.

Now, yes, you have a Biden case, you have a Trump case, but there are significant

differences between those two cases.

Herr even points them out in his report.

Trump was provided multiple opportunities to return the classified documents that were

found at Mar-a-Lago.

According to the indictment, Trump refused to do so and even actively sought to

obstruct investigators by trying to get others to destroy evidence and then lie about it

to investigators.

Biden, on the other hand, he voluntarily turned over classified documents to the National

Archives and Justice Department after they were found.

He then voluntarily agreed to FBI searches of his homes.

He sat down for an interview with Herr's team.

So, as Herr says, there are significant distinctions between these two cases.

to searches of his home implies that perhaps he did not realize that classified documents

were there. Ryan, thanks so much.

Thank you. That's NPR Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas.

We now have the story of a former president who made false claims of a stolen election.

Ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is facing mounting evidence that points to him

participating in efforts to overturn the results of an election that ultimately unseated

him. Yesterday, federal police showed up at his residence in Rio Grande do Norte.

And forced him to hand over his passport.

Hi there, Carrie. Hi, good morning.

What is the new evidence?

Several of his close aides were.

And the federal police then unveiled its case of Bolsonaro's alleged participation in an

attempted coup in this 130-page detailed document, which has a lot of stunning evidence,

Steve, much that we have not heard before.

The investigation names dozens of people who worked with Bolsonaro allegedly well before

he lost his reelection bid back in 2022.

They include military personnel, his former defense minister, his former justice

minister and a national security adviser.

And the level at which Bolsonaro orchestrated much of, police says, was a vast

conspiracy to overturn the election results is new, too.

At one point, police say Bolsonaro edited a document that outlined how the coup would

unfold, including which leaders in the government would be arrested and who would not.

And that edit included the arrest of a justice of the Supreme Court.

So these things didn't necessarily happen, but he's editing a document that is the plan.

Can you now fit this into the context of what we already knew about his failed effort to

overturn his defeat in 2022?

defective. His supporters spent months camping out in front of military

barracks, hoping the army would intervene and overturn the results of the election.

When that didn't happen, the supporters ransacked the Capitol on January 8th of last

year. Bolsonaro was denied he had anything to do with that attack.

Unlike Trump, who was the two were close allies when they were both in office.

Bolsonaro has already been barred from running for office until 2030 by electoral

authorities. And like Trump, Bolsonaro is also facing many more cases that could land

The current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who Bolsonaro lost to, also spoke out.

He said he hopes the investigation against Bolsonaro is professional and unbiased.

But he did add he didn't think the coup attempt could have happened without Bolsonaro.

I want to play you a bit of a conversation I had with Brazilian political scientist Guilherme

Casarrolles. It was interesting.

He was hopeful despite learning how the former right-wing leader had tried to undermine

Brazil's democratic consensus.

And, you know, that is quite serious in this country with a history of military

new plea agreements from aides of Bolsonaro that were arrested yesterday.

And all of that could prove very problematic for Bolsonaro.

military commander as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its third

year.

asked his outgoing general to remain part of the team.

He's a reporter for the Financial Times based in Kyiv and author of the book The War

Came to Us, Life and Death in Ukraine.

Mr. Miller, welcome back.

He's very popular.

So why get rid of him now?

The country's big counteroffensive last year failed to achieve its goals.

It's running low on ammunition, on troops.

It's on the defensive while Russia has seized the initiative on the battlefield and is on

the attack. So Zelensky thinks it's time right now to reboot his army command and

hopefully turn around Ukraine's fortunes to see some progress this year.

not necessarily the general's fault.

You could say that it's the fault of the United States for not shipping enough.

Ukraine's allies for not shipping enough.

What would point a finger of blame at the general himself?

counteroffensive and him and Zelensky were at odds at times about how to conduct that

counteroffensive. The United States was advising Kyiv and Ukraine on what to do.

Zaluzhny was listening to some of that, but also implementing some of his own

experiences on the battlefield.

President Zelensky is seen as having made some political decisions about how things

were to be done and having gone around Valeriy Zaluzhny to speak with his other

commanders on the battlefield.

So that's where some of the points of tension come in between the two, Zaluzhny and

Zelensky.

Lincoln, the American president during the Civil War who changed generals again and

again and again until he found somebody who could win.

So the new guy is Oleksandr Skirsky.

What do you know about him?

He has changed over his government a few times, even before the full scale invasion.

So he's choosing Oleksandr Skirsky now.

Skirsky is seen as a close ally of Zelensky.

The president believes he can trust him to carry out his orders.

It's true that he's an experienced career commander who has been involved in many

battles before, including in Russia's first invasion in 2014.

But he's deeply unpopular with the rank and file troops who call him the butcher

because they say he's kept brigades too long in battles where they should have been

pulled out, costing valuable lives and ammunition.

The best example of that was the Battle of Bakhmut that saw Russia destroy the city

before capturing it last year.

think can work to win the war, given the various limitations of ammunition and

everything else that they face?

At the moment, it is taking what Skirsky is calling an active defense approach.

So that is actually similar to what Russia did last year in digging in deeper,

fortifying its frontline positions, rebuilding its military and its brigades.

Ukraine is hoping that it can train some new troops this year, again, fortify its

positions and essentially put itself in a stronger position than it is now to go on

the counteroffensive either later this year or in 2025.

Mr. Miller, thanks so much.

Thank you. That's Christopher Miller of the Financial Times.

And that's Up First for this Friday, February 9th.

I'm Steve Inskeep.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Ali Schweitzer, Tara Neal

and Mohamed El-Baddisi.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams and Julie Deppenbrock.

We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent.

Our technical director is Zach Coleman and our executive producer is Erika Aguilar.

Start your day here with us tomorrow, which is Saturday.