The Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on Thursday that legal advisers to convicted felon President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are urging him to seek a joint investigation into predecessor Jair Bolsonaro with left-wing American President Joe Biden.
The news surfaced shortly before a group of dozens of leftists in the American Congress sent a letter to Biden, also on Thursday, urging him to “cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government” into Bolsonaro and empower the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to potentially probe Bolsonaro administration officials.
Growing pressure for a legal probe into Bolsonaro’s actions and those in his administration, which ended on January 1, stem from a riot that occurred in the nation’s capital on Sunday in which an estimated 5,000 anti-Lula protesters descended on the headquarters of Brazil’s Congress, top court, and presidency, causing potentially millions of dollars in damage. The protesters targeted the Congressional building; Planalto, the presidential offices, and the headquarters of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the top court. The riot resulted in the destruction of the glass facades of the Congress and STF and largely rendered the STF headquarters unusable.
The protesters were part of a movement that has for months objected to Lula assuming the presidency for a third term, having served from 2003 to 2011 previous. Lula, a hardline socialist, was convicted on multiple appeals of taking bribes during his past tenure. In 2021, the STF overturned his convictions on the grounds that the initial court that tried the case allegedly did not have jurisdiction to do so, liberating Lula from prison and allowing him to run for president. The STF’s election oversight offshoot, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), also banned media outlets from calling Lula corrupt and from discussion of his criminal conviction – a move pro-Bolsonaro protesters say s tantamount to election interference and should result in the annulment of the election results.
Jair Bolsonaro himself was in the Orlando, Florida, area during the riot. He has denounced the destruction of government property publicly and said he was in America for a vacation following the end of his presidency, but he intends to return to Brazil shortly.
Also in America during the riot was Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, Anderson Torres, who assumed the job of head of public security in Brasilia in January and was absent from the country during the riot. The STF ordered Torres’s arrest this week, accusing him of deliberately setting the scene to allow mass destruction in the capital.
Far-left lawmakers in Congress have nonetheless insinuated that Bolsonaro and Torres are in America in an attempt to avoid legal repercussions for any potential involvement in the riot and demanded Biden not offer him “refuge.” Torres has also vowed to return shortly and cooperate with law enforcement.
In recognition of Bolsonaro’s presence in Florida, a group of 41 Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), sent a letter to Biden on Thursday pressuring his administration to help Lula by potentially revoking Bolsonaro’s visa allowing him in America. Others signing the letter include Joaquín Castro (D-TX), Ruben Gallego (D-IL), and Susan Wild (D-PA).
The Democrats compare the situation in Brasilia – which resulted in no deaths and reportedly did not feature anyone wielding firearms aside from police officers – to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which police killed one person.
“Two years ago, the United States faced a similar assault on our democracy. We know firsthand the impact – both immediate and long-term – when government officials subvery democratic norms, spread misinformation, and foment violent extremism,” the letter dramatically proclaimed.
The Democrats accused Bolsonaro of making “active calls to mobilize against democratic institutions” by questioning the integrity of voting systems in his country and insists, “we must not allow Mr. Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian officials to take refuge in the United States to escape justice for any crimes they may have committed when in office, and we should cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government into their actions, if requested.”
It further suggests that Biden may have the power to expel Bolsonaro from the country.
“As we understand, since Mr. Bolsonaro entered the United States when he was still the President of Brazil, he may have done so on an A-1 visa that is reserved for individuals on diplomatic or official visits,” the Democrats wrote. “As he is no longer the President of Brazil or currently serving as a Brazilian official, we request that you reassess his status in the country to ascertain whether there is a legal basis for his stay and revoke any such diplomatic visa he may hold.”
It concluded by suggesting potential FBI involvement in handling the aftermath of the Brasilia riot:
NEW: More than 40 congressional democrats, led by Joaquin Castro and House Foreign Affairs ranking member Gregory Meeks, are calling on Biden to revoke former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s US visa following the insurrection at the Brazilian capital. pic.twitter.com/ivKFNLYs74
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) January 12, 2023
Bolsonaro enthusiastically condemned the riot late on Sunday, shortly before being hospitalized, reportedly with intense abdominal pain (he has since been released).
“Peaceful protests, abiding by the law, are part of democracy. However, destruction and invasions of public buildings, such as what happened today, just like those [riots] committed by the left in 2013 and 2017, are out of bounds,” Bolsonaro wrote. “Throughout my mandate, I always [worked] within the confines of the constitution, respecting and defending laws, democracy, and transparency and our sacred freedom”:
– Ao longo do meu mandato, sempre estive dentro das quatro linhas da Constituição respeitando e defendendo as leis, a democracia, a transparência e a nossa sagrada liberdade.
— Jair M. Bolsonaro 2️⃣2️⃣ (@jairbolsonaro) January 9, 2023
During the 2022 presidential race, Bolsonaro had suggested that investigations were necessary to ensure that the voting machines used in the election operated correctly and were not tampered with, the comments the Democrats claim in their letter are akin to stoking public acts of violence. In November, following an audit of the machines, the Brazilian military concluded it “did not exclude the possibility of the existence of fraud or inconsistency in the electronic voting machines or in the 2022 electoral process.”
“There was a possible security risk in the generation of programs in electronic voting machines due to the occurrence of computers accessing the TSE network during the compilation of the source code,” the Brazilian armed forces said in a statement at the time. “As a result of these findings and other obstacles listed in the report, it is not possible to guarantee that the programs executed in the electronic voting machines are free from malicious insertions that alter their functioning.”
O Globo, a Brazilian newspaper of record, suggested in a report on Thursday that Lula’s legal advisers are open to cooperation with Biden to take legal action against Bolsonaro. Without naming them, the newspaper said that the alleged advisers believe these “are sufficient justifications to support this request [for cooperation with Washington], such as the presence of Jair Bolsonaro in Orlando, Florida, and that of … Anderson Torres.”
O Globo noted that one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, also recently visited Florida, indicating this could be used to expand a probe into the United States.
Bolsonaro told CNN this week that he did not depart Brazil to flee any potential legal actions under Lula, but rather to vacation.
“I came [to the United States] to stay until the end of the month [January], but I intend to return,” the former president said. “Because, in Brazil, the doctors already know about my intestinal obstruction problem due to the stabbing. The doctors didn’t accompany me here.”
Bolsonaro was reportedly hospitalized with severe abdominal pain as a result of complications stemming from an assassination attempt in 2018, during his victorious presidential campaign, in which a socialist stabbed him in the stomach repeatedly, gravely damaging his digestive system. He has undergone five surgeries since then to address scarring and blockages in his intestinal tract.
“I came to spend some time abroad with family but I have not had calm days,” Bolsonaro reportedly told CNN. “First, that lamentable episode happened yesterday in Brazil [the riot], and then this hospitalization of mine.”
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