Brazil Court Bars Bolsonaro From Going to Trump Inauguration
(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Supreme Court barred former President Jair Bolsonaro from leaving the country to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday.
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Justice Alexandre de Moraes, as recommended by the prosecutor general’s office, declined to return Bolsonaro’s passport, according to a court filing issued Thursday. Police had seized his passport in February 2024 amid a probe into an alleged coup attempt by the ex-president’s supporters.
Moraes wrote that the circumstances of the trip raised the “possibility of an escape attempt” by Bolsonaro. The judge cited Bolsonaro’s previous defense of the idea that people convicted of taking part in riots that followed his 2022 election defeat should seek asylum abroad.
Bolsonaro on Jan. 8 had said he was invited to Trump’s inauguration and in a video posted on the social media platform X had said he was “very happy with this invitation.”
“I will be representing in the US the conservatives, the right-wing, the good, the Brazilian people if God wills it,” he said.
Moraes had turned down Bolsonaro’s initial request to attend Trump’s inauguration, asking for proof he’d been invited. Representatives for Bolsonaro then presented the Supreme Court with a copy of an email addressed to congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the right-wing former leader, but which failed to provide an event schedule. Bolsonaro’s spokesman denied a request from Bloomberg News for a copy of the invitation.
Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet said there’s no evidence in the request filed by Bolsonaro’s lawyers that the trip “would come to any vital interest” that could override “the public interest that opposes the applicant’s departure from the country.”
Bolsonaro’s team said in a post on X that the decision had no “legal or logical basis,” noting that he had attended Argentina President Javier Milei’s inauguration in 2023 and returned to Brazil. The decision is “a grave disappointment” for Bolsonaro, his followers and “the long-standing friendship between Brazil and the United States,” it said.
In an interview with the conservative website Revista Oeste, Bolsonaro said his wife Michelle Bolsonaro will attend the ceremony in Washington.
Gonet later this year may present formal charges against Bolsonaro based on federal police probes into the alleged coup attempt after his 2022 election loss.
The ex-president is also facing inquiries in another case involving the alleged illegal sale of gifts received from the governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and another focused on falsified vaccination records.
The federal police recommended criminal charges against a total of 37 people, including Bolsonaro and high-ranking members of the military who served in his government, for plotting a coup and committing crimes against democracy.
(Updates with Bolsonaro response from the 8th paragraph.)
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