Trump Media Sues Brazilian Judge Presiding Over Bolsonaro Coup Accusations

Legal action against Justice de Moraes coincides with an indictment of former Brazilian president for alleged 2022 election plot.

Arthur Menescal/Getty Images 2022
Alexandre De Moraes talks during a press conference on October 30, 2022 at Brasilia, Brazil. Arthur Menescal/Getty Images 2022

President Trump’s media company filed a lawsuit against a justice with the Brazilian Supreme Court just hours after the judge received an indictment against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro.

The lawsuit, filed by the Trump Media & Technology Group in a U.S. federal court at Tampa on Wednesday morning, alleges that Brazilian justice Alexandre de Moraes illegally censored conservative voices on social media, according to the New York Times.

The company, which operates Truth Social, was joined as a co-plaintiff by the conservative video platform, Rumble. Both allege that Justice Moraes infringed upon the First Amendment and silenced political discourse in America by ordering Rumble to remove the accounts of right-wing pundits in Brazil.

Both companies allege that the orders affect how those accounts appeared in the United States, violating American law.

The orders did not directly apply to Truth Social, but Mr. Trump’s company argues that its app relies on the technology provided by Rumble and that it could be harmed if the video platform’s operations were affected.

The lawsuit comes as Brazilian Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet charged the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, with planning a coup along with 33 others in an attempt to retain power after losing his bid for re-election in 2022. The plot allegedly included plans to poison his successor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and shoot Justice de Moraes.

“The members of the criminal organization structured a plan at the presidential palace to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,’” Prosecutor-General Gonet wrote in the 272-page indictment. “The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it.”

Mr. Bolsonaro has denied the allegations. “[The former] President has never agreed to any movement aimed at deconstructing the democratic rule of law or the institutions that underpin it,” his legal team said in a statement.

The charges were based on the findings of a November report from Brazil’s Federal Police, which allege a systematic effort to sow distrust in the country’s electoral system.

The Brazilian Supreme Court is currently reviewing the charges, and if accepted, Mr. Bolsonaro will stand trial.

“I have no concerns about the accusations, zero,” Mr. Bolsonaro said to journalists on Tuesday while visiting the Senate at Brasilia. “Have you seen the coup decree, by any chance? You haven’t. Neither have I.”


The New York Sun

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