Bolsonaro’s Charges May Stack Up, as Brazilian Police Investigate Potential Espionage

The Brazilian federal police are launching another criminal investigation into President Bolsonaro, this time for allegedly spying on government officials.The conservative figure is already facing criminal embezzlement charges for allegedly colluding with the Brazilian intelligence agency to spy on political opponents and journalists during his presidency.The police carried out “preventative searches and seizures” Thursday, searching the homes of the agency’s former director and Mr. Bolsonaro’s son, Councilman Carlos Bolsonaro, who is also under investigation, Folha de São Paulo reported.The federal police probe into Mr. Bolsonaro and his associates is part of a larger ongoing investigation named Operation Última Milha, during which police have already arrested five officials who worked for the director of the agency at the time, Alexandre Ramagem.Justice de Moraes claims that the intelligence agency’s actions were meant to discredit the Liberal Party’s political opponentsAccording to Justice de Moraes, those being investigated participated in a corrupt act to produce “misinformation to attack opponents and institutions that, in turn, was disseminated through propagation vectors materialized in profiles and groups controlled by servers in office” at the agency.“The Federal Police Report provides proof of the materiality and sufficient evidence of the serious crimes committed,” he added.Generally, another country’s president would not enjoy the same kind of immunity as the American head of state, with many Latin American and European countries having prosecuted former presidents in the past. A professor of political studies at Bard College, Omar Encarnación, said that in Brazil, political prosecutions arise whenever the people believe that an individual threatens the country’s democratic institutions.“Brazil does have a political culture that appreciates and that is more receptive to arguments about protecting democracy,” he told NPR in May.“This is a country that endured a 20-some-year military dictatorship from the mid-’60s through the mid-’80s,” Mr. Encarnación added. “So I think there’s an effort to protect democracy that resonates more broadly with Brazil than it does with the American electorate.”The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil had already banned Mr. Bolsonaro from running for political office until 2030, after the court found him guilty last year of sowing mistrust toward Brazil’s election infrastructure.“We do not carry any spirit of revenge against those who tried to subjugate the nation to their personal and ideological designs, but we will guarantee the rule of law,” the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, who is known as Lula, said at the time. “Those who erred will answer for their errors.”Under Brazil’s constitution, nobody convicted of a crime is allowed to run for president, which means if Mr. Bolsonaro is found guilty of any of the charges against him, his hopes to regain political power will be crushed.Lula had previously been tried, convicted, and imprisoned in 2018 on corruption charges during one of Brazil’s biggest money-laundering investigations, Operation Lava Jato. Lula was released after about a year and a half, and he swiftly put his center-left party back in power two years ago. Mr. Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing.

Bolsonaro’s Charges May Stack Up, as Brazilian Police Investigate Potential Espionage

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