Brazilian judge defying trump tests peers’ patience in bolsonaro trial

Brazilian judge defying trump tests peers’ patience in bolsonaro trial

Alexandre de Moraes’s defiance of Trump’s sanctions and pressure has heightened tensions as Brazil’s Supreme Court nears a verdict in the trial; court sources say fellow justices worry even stronger blowback from Trump, who has demanded Brazil drop what he calls a political ‘witch hunt’.

Brazil’s Supreme Court goes into final deliberations in its trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro this week in a case that has incurred the wrath of U.S. President Donald Trump. No man has felt the force of that fury, or dismissed it as scornfully, as Alexandre de Moraes, the judge who put Mr. Bolsonaro under house arrest, jailed hundreds of his backers for invading government buildings and cowed Elon Musk over social media content. His pursuit of Mr. Bolsonaro has led Mr. Trump to impose a 50% trade tariff on Brazil, visa restrictions and individual financial sanctions.

Mr. Moraes, 56, whose stern bald visage has come to define the court he joined eight years ago, insists he will not back down. But behind his implacable facade, he faces a growing backlash from lawmakers seeking his impeachment and public opinion tiring of his hardline tactics.

Even within the high court, which has upheld his decisions and presented a largely united front, tensions are rising. Two court sources said his fellow justices worry the Bolsonaro case may draw even stronger blowback from Mr. Trump, who has demanded that Brazil drop the trial that the U.S. President calls a “witch hunt.”

Some Supreme Court justices are preparing to publicly question elements of decisions by Mr. Moraes, who is running the case, to show their independence, the court sources said.

Mr. Moraes in an interview in August said that he had not heard any concerns from peers about how he has run the Bolsonaro case. “If anyone did complain, they complained to the press,” he said. “Whoever put this in the press, I’ll say here that it’s a lie.”

In July, the U.S. government stripped visas from eight high court justices, sparing three judges who had clearly diverged with Mr. Moraes in prior cases. That has fed speculation among the local press that the Trump administration is trying to sow division in the court.

In response to questions, a senior U.S. State Department official did not address that speculation but said the visa restrictions targeted Mr. Moraes.

President Trump “has taken decisive action through the imposition of Global Magnitsky Sanctions against Justice Moraes and his allies,” the official said, referring to a law that allows the U.S. to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses.

Supreme Court Justice Andre Mendonca, whom Mr. Bolsonaro appointed in 2021, has hinted increasingly in public about divergences on the court. “A good judge must be respected, not feared,” he said in a recent speech, which some in the court took as thinly veiled criticism of Mr. Moraes, who would address the same event in Rio de Janeiro later in the day. “Their rulings should bring social peace, not chaos, uncertainty, or insecurity.”

Mr. Bolsonaro is still widely expected to be convicted of plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election, which he lost to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and sentenced to prison by the five-judge panel convened from Tuesday through next week. Mr. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and called Mr. Moraes a “dictator.”

Fragile democracy

Mr. Moraes was born on December 13, 1968, at one of the darkest moments of Brazil’s recent history.

That was the day the military dictatorship then ruling the country gave itself the power to close Congress and suspend political rights, unleashing an era of repression that included the torture of thousands and killing of hundreds of Brazilians.

Mr. Moraes and his supporters say his aggressive approach to Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies has always been aimed at defending Brazilian democracy and avoiding a repeat of that dark day.

His critics argue the opposite, accusing him of censorship and illegal overreach in orders to remove social media posts from Mr. Bolsonaro supporters, seize the phones of businessmen discussing the virtues of a coup and jail a lawmaker who made threats against the court.

The senior State Department official said, “Brazil’s dark reality is a stark reminder of where political weaponisation of a government, such as the one conducted under the Biden administration, ultimately leads.”

Mr. Trump has accused Democratic former President Joe Biden of “weaponising” the U.S. legal system and has accused him and former President Barack Obama, without providing evidence, of an effort to falsely tie him to Russia and undermine Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Still, if the Supreme Court convicts Mr. Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, and the generals who allegedly plotted with him, it would be the first time in Brazil’s coup-spotted history that military officers are punished for threatening democracy.

“The history of Brazil and the world teaches that impunity, omissions and cowardice can, at first, look like the fastest way to solve problems,” Mr. Moraes told the audience in Rio. “Impunity never worked in history for any country in the world.”

Many Brazilians are ready to see Mr. Bolsonaro punished. In an August survey by pollster Quaest, 55% of respondents said his house arrest was justified.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s allies say they have lined up more than 41 senators eager to remove Mr. Moraes from office, still shy of the 54 needed for impeachment.