By Luciana Magalhaes
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, told Reuters on Thursday he expects additional U.S. sanctions against Brazilian officials following his father’s conviction for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election.
“We are going to have a firm response with actions from the U.S. government against this dictatorship that is being installed in Brazil,” he said in an interview.
The lawmaker warned that Supreme Court justices who voted to convict the former president could face sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, which was previously applied by the Trump administration against Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge overseeing the case.
“If these Supreme Court justices keep following Moraes, they also run the risk of facing the same sanction,” he said.
Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia and Cristiano Zanin sided with Moraes in the trial, with Luiz Fux the only dissenter.
The younger Bolsonaro moved to the U.S. earlier this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father. He has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50% tariffs on most Brazilian goods.
He met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last month as part of his lobby for sanctions against Brazilian officials involved in the trial of his father.
Trump, who has previously called the case against Bolsonaro a “witch hunt,” said on Thursday he was surprised and very unhappy that his ally had been convicted.
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal and Kanishka Singh, Writing by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
Comments