Former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has found himself in a tailspin of legal trouble since leaving office at the end of last year.
Police have raided his home. He has testified to authorities on four separate occasions. Some of his closest allies have been arrested. And late Thursday, local news outlets reported that a top judge granted investigators access to his bank and tax records.
Brazil’s electoral authority barred the right-wing former leader from seeking public office for eight years in June. Now Bolsonaro’s growing legal problems have raised the prospect that he may ultimately face arrest and jail time.
The 68-year-old former army captain, who spread conspiracies about vote fraud throughout last year’s election, is facing investigations over whether he played a role in Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, when supporters stormed major government buildings in an apparent effort to overturn his defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Since returning from self-imposed, post-election exile in Florida, he has also become the subject of probes into accusations of falsified Covid-19 vaccine records, allegations of a plot to bug the judge spearheading investigations against him, and whether he attempted to sell expensive jewelry and other gifts he received as president.
Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing in each of the cases. And like Donald Trump, he has often claimed he is the victim of a politicized witch hunt.
The cases against Bolsonaro are led by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In 2019, the judge was tapped to oversee a sprawling investigation, widely known as the Fake News Inquiry, that has examined Bolsonaro’s role in spreading disinformation against the court and its members. He has since authorized a half-dozen probes into alleged crimes committed during and after Bolsonaro’s time in office.
Read More: Brazil’s Top Judge Gives Police Access to Bolsonaro Bank Records
Many of them have converged. In May, federal authorities arrested Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, who served as Bolsonaro’s right-hand man during his presidency. While in custody, Cid has provided testimony in multiple cases, contributing to the perception among both Bolsonaro’s opponents and allies that authorities may be closing in.
Here’s a timeline of the main cases involving the former president:
April 5, 2023: Saudi Jewelery Scandal
Bolsonaro gives deposition about the alleged embezzlement of jewelry he received as gifts from the king of Saudi Arabia while president. The jewelry includes a diamond necklace, earrings and watch made by the Swiss brand Chopard, along with other items. In total, it was valued at $3 million.
In 2021, customs officials seized a suitcase containing jewelry from a member of a Brazilian delegation returning to Sao Paulo’s international airport.
Brazilian law states anyone arriving by plane from abroad must declare goods above $1,000 — and pay taxes of 50% on any amount above that exemption. Official gifts would be tax exempt. But Brazilian officials aren’t allowed to keep most valuable gifts, and must place them in public collections maintained by the state.
April 26, 2023: Jan. 8 Riots
Bolsonaro provides deposition about his supposed links to an attempted insurrection on Jan. 8, when his supporters ransacked key government buildings, including congress and the presidential palace.
He told investigators that he had “turned the page” on his narrow defeat to Lula. In the lead up the election, Bolsonaro repeatedly made baseless claims that the country’s electronic voting machines were vulnerable to fraud and manipulation — some of which led to his eight-year ban from office in June.
Read More: Bolsonaro Tells Police He Moved Beyond Election Before Riots
Bolsonaro never explicitly recognized Lula’s victory and skipped his Jan. 1 inauguration. He has used the fact that he was in Florida on Jan. 8 to argue that he had no involvement in the riots.
May 16, 2023: Fake Covid-19 Records
Bolsonaro gives deposition as part of an investigation into falsified Covid-19 records. Police allege that aides of the former president tampered with immunization data in the national health database to produce Covid vaccination certificates to meet entry requirements for other countries, including the US.
Read More: Bolsonaro Denies Wrongdoing After Police Raid in Covid Probe
Earlier in May, authorities raided Bolsonaro’s home in Brasilia as part of the probe. They also arrested Cid, who acted as Bolsonaro’s personal secretary during his four-year term. Bolsonaro is a vocal coronavirus skeptic and says he was never vaccinated.
Rings a bell, I wonder if it’s world wide political virus that will need a few shots to be fixed?
…gotta give the devil his due. The Communists only keep doing this because it keeps working. When a non-leftist even GETS power he spends most of his time on defense, and ALWAYS faces the threat of jail or even murder afterwards.
The Communists have no such fears and are CONSTANTLY on the attack, in power or out.
And they can do this on a GLOBAL scale with very little danger to themselves.
…remember that West Point kid with the “COMMUNISM WILL WIN” hat?
Not sure now if he knew something we didn’t…
Hmmmm … curiouser and curiouser … seems that totalitarianism has only one playbook.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Tim – FJB AT 7:29 AM
“Hmmmm … curiouser and curiouser … seems that totalitarianism has only one playbook.”
…that’s because their mentor satan is not creative, he only repeats.
But that works because he constantly gets fresh generations taught to ignore history, their parents, and the Bible and instead try to make gods of themselves even as their master the devil does.
“It will work if WE control it” shares a LOT with the Serpent telling Eve, “Ye shall not surely die”.
The lie comes from the same source.
And it keeps working.
…consider how aptly this 2,000 year old passage describes the modern Democrat.
…we’ve been here before…and before…and before…and will repeat until the Lord Himself comes back, for it is the doom of men that they forget.
“20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Romans 1:20-32
The same evil devil repeats his same evil tricks.
That’s on him.
…but the same kind of men serve him every time, and fall for them every time.
And THAT is on US.
Mankind never changes.
He just gets better weapons.
Yep – reasonable, thinking people see through all this.
Lazy and unintelligent people lap up what is fed to them. Unfortunately there are too many of these. Last 3 years have been a great enlightening for many, we need to enlighten more.
is Dominion voting machine company there?
Like creeping concrete closing in.
The young ones welcome it.
They’re taught to hate anybody who has anything they don’t.
@dee, I believe so – that dominion was doninating elections in Brazil as was done here.
IIRC, the Bidet admin was involved as well.
There’s a wave of fascism sweeping the world, and it could only happen becasue the US has been totally kneecapped by corruption and destruction of young minds.
C. I. A.