Top Brazil court greenlights probe of Bolsonaro in riot inquiry
RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice Friday authorized an investigation of whether former President Jair Bolsonaro incited Sunday’s riot in the nation’s capital, as part of a broader crackdown to hold responsible parties to account.
According to the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general’s office, which cited a video Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot. The video claimed that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wasn’t voted into office but rather was chosen by the supreme court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
Prosecutors in the recently formed group to combat anti-democratic acts argued earlier Friday that, although Bolsonaro posted the video after the riot, its content was sufficient to justify investigating his conduct beforehand. Bolsonaro deleted it the morning after he posted it.
Otherwise Bolsonaro has refrained from commenting recently on his Oct. 30 election defeat. He repeatedly stoked doubt about the reliability of the electronic voting system in the run-up to the vote, filed a request afterward to annul millions of ballots cast using the machines and never conceded his loss to Lula.
The ousted far-right president has taken up residence in an Orlando, Fla., suburb since leaving Brazil in late December and skipping the Jan. 1 swearing-in of his leftist successor. In Washington, some Democratic lawmakers have urged President Biden to cancel Bolsonaro’s visa.
After the justice’s decision late Friday, Bolsonaro’s lawyer Frederick Wassef said in a statement that the former president “vehemently repudiates the acts of vandalism and destruction” in Brasilia on Sunday, but blamed purported “infiltrators” of the protest — something his backers have also claimed, so far without evidence.
The statement also said Bolsonaro “never had any relationship or participation with these spontaneous social movements.”
A National Weather Service meteorologist says heavier rains, strong winds and more snow for the mountains are expected Saturday.
Authorities are investigating who enabled Bolsonaro’s radical supporters to storm the Supreme Federal Court, Congress and presidential palace in an attempt to overturn results of the election. Targets include those who paid to transport rioters to the capital and local security personnel who may have stood aside to let the mayhem occur.
Much of the attention thus far has focused on Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, who became the federal district’s security chief on Jan. 2 and was in the U.S. on the day of the riot.
De Moraes ordered Torres’ arrest this week and has opened an investigation into his actions, which he characterized as “neglect and collusion.” In his decision, which was made public Friday, he said that Torres fired subordinates and left the country before the riot, which the justice said was an indication he was laying the groundwork for the unrest.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for the former security chief, and he must return within three days or Brazil will request his extradition, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said Friday.
“If by next week his appearance hasn’t been confirmed, of course we will use mechanisms of international legal cooperation. We will trigger procedures next week to carry out his extradition,” Dino said.
Torres has denied wrongdoing, and said Tuesday on Twitter that he would interrupt his vacation to return to Brazil and present his defense. Three days later, that has yet to occur.
The minister pointed to a document that Brazilian federal police found upon searching Torres’ home: a draft decree that would have seized control of Brazil’s electoral authority and potentially overturned the election. The origin and authenticity of the unsigned document are unclear, and it remains unknown if Bolsonaro or his subordinates took any steps to implement the measure, which would have been unconstitutional, according to analysts and the Brazilian academy of electoral and political law.
But the document “will figure in the police investigation, because it even more fully reveals the existence of a chain of people responsible for the criminal events,” Dino said, adding that Torres will need to inform police who drafted it.
By failing to initiate a probe against the document’s author or report its existence, Torres could at least be charged with dereliction of duty, said Mario Sérgio Lima, a political analyst at Medley Global Advisors.
Torres said on Twitter that the document was probably found in a pile along with others intended for shredding, and that it was leaked out of context to feed false narratives aimed at discrediting him.
Dino told reporters that no connection has yet been established between the capital riot and Bolsonaro, who has been in Florida since late December.
The federal district’s former governor and former military police chief are also targets of the supreme court investigation made public Friday. Both were removed from their positions after the riot.
Also Friday night, the social media accounts of several prominent right-wing figures were suspended in Brazil in response to a court order, which journalist Glenn Greenwald obtained and detailed on a live social media broadcast.
The order, also issued by De Moraes, was directed at six social media platforms and established a two-hour deadline to block the accounts or face fines. The accounts belong to a digital influencer, a YouTuber recently elected federal lawmaker, a podcast host in the mold of Joe Rogan, and an evangelical pastor and senator-elect, among others.
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