Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Rejects U.S. Sanctions Amid Bolsonaro Coup Trial
Justice Alexandre De Moraes, Aug. 1, 2025. X/ @KriskaCarvalho
August 1, 2025 Hour: 12:37 pm
There is no room for pressure or coercion seeking a tyrannical and spurious dismissal of the case, Justice De Moraes said.
On Friday, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is presiding over the coup trial against former President Jair Bolsonaro, said he will not acknowledge sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
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“We will judge all those responsible, acquitting those for whom there is no evidence, convicting those for whom there is, but we will judge, carrying out our function and without cowering before threats, whether they come from here or anywhere else,” he said during a plenary session of the Court in Brasilia.
De Moraes is under scrutiny by the U.S. government, which accuses him of being “responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized judicial proceedings, including against Bolsonaro.”
Initially, the Trump administration revoked his visa and those of his family members. On Wednesday, Washington escalated the pressure by placing the judge under the Magnitsky Act, which authorizes the U.S. to sanction foreign nationals implicated in corruption or human rights violations. The trial against Bolsonaro also served as justification for Trump’s imposition of a 50% additional tariff on certain Brazilian imports.
The text reads, “The Economist’s editorial argues that Trump’s sanction to De Moraes can be a ‘foot shot’. Instead of weakening the judge’s action, the measure strengthens President Lula’s speech that Bolsonaro and his allies are ‘traitors.'”
In his forceful speech, De Moraes argued that “there has never been in the world” a criminal proceeding like the one Bolsonaro is facing, which has been conducted with “such transparency,” as the interrogations and witness statements have been publicly broadcast.
He stated that there is no room for “pressure or coercion” seeking a “tyrannical and spurious dismissal” of the case, in which Bolsonaro is accused of leading a coup plot to prevent the inauguration of President Lula da Silva after losing the 2022 election.
Without naming anyone specifically, De Moraes said such coercion, which he called “nefarious for Brazilian society,” aims to benefit individuals who “believe they are above the law,” in a clear allusion to Bolsonaro.
The justice said those behind such efforts—whom he labeled “traitors to the homeland” and accused of acting like a “militia organization”—would be “fully held accountable.”
With this statement, De Moraes appeared to refer to federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president, who has been living in the United States for the past five months, financially supported by his father.
The congressman has openly stated that he has met with White House representatives to lobby for sanctions against Brazil’s Supreme Court and the country itself in an effort to assist his father legally.
Currently, Jair and Eduardo Bolsonaro are under investigation for these efforts to coordinate with the Trump administration in a separate case linked to the coup case.
“These obstruction attempts by so-called patriotic Brazilians, acting on behalf of foreign interests, have a single goal: to replace due legal process —carried out with full participation from the Prosecutor’s Office, 96 attorneys, the press, and the public— with a tyrannical dismissal of the case,” De Moraes said.
The justice also emphasized that Brazil’s Supreme Court “will not bend” to threats from far-right actors directed at authorities and their families.
“That criminal militia organization and those Brazilian fugitives abroad are fooling themselves if they expect weakness,” De Moraes concluded. “Brazil’s institutions are strong and solid.”
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
