Brazilian ex-President Bolsonaro echoes Trump by describing his coup plot trial as a ‘witch hunt’

By ELÉONORE HUGHES
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s chief prosecutor has called for a guilty verdict in the case of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, on trial accused of leading an alleged coup plot to overturn the 2022 election in which he was defeated by a left-wing rival.

Hours before the prosecutor’s final report was released late Monday, the ex-president said on X that the trial was a “witch hunt,” echoing a term used by U.S. President Donald Trump when he came to his South American ally’s defense last week.

In the 517-page document, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said that the “evidence is clear: the defendant acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite insurrection and the destabilization of the democratic rule of law.”

“None of this happened. I’ve always played within the rules,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with local outlet Poder360 on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro’s trial

The prosecution accuses the former president of leading an armed criminal organization, attempting to stage a coup and attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, among other charges.

The defense will next present its case shortly, likely in the coming weeks, after which the panel of Supreme Court justices that opened the trial against Bolsonaro will vote on whether to convict or acquit him. Experts say a decision is expected in the second half of the year.

A guilty verdict on the coup plot charge carries a sentence of up to 12 years, which could, along with guilty verdicts on other charges, bring decades behind bars.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied the allegations and asserted that he’s the target of political persecution.

“What is a coup? It’s the Armed Forces, it’s tanks on the streets, it’s having a political core, having a financial core,” Bolsonaro said on Tuesday. “That’s a coup. Nothing was even considered (…) and even if it had been considered, since nothing started, there’s no crime.”

A lawyer for Bolsonaro didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A nod from Trump

Last week, Trump imposed a 50% import tax on Brazil, directly tying the tariffs to Bolsonaro’s trial. The U.S. president has hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020.

Last week, he compared the Brazilian’s situation to his own. On Tuesday, speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump repeated the claim that the trial is a “witch hunt.”

“Bolsonaro is not a dishonest man,” he said. “Nobody is happy with what Brazil is doing because Bolsonaro was a respected president.”

Trump added that Bolsonaro isn’t a friend, but someone he knows.

On Monday, the office of the under secretary for public diplomacy at the U.S. State Department said on X that “attacks” on Bolsonaro “are a disgrace and fall well below the dignity of Brazil’s democratic traditions.” The U.S. Embassy in Brazil reposted the message, adding a translation in Portuguese.

Brazil’s foreign ministry responded on Tuesday, saying those claims are “further undue and unacceptable interference in matters under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian judiciary.”

Building the case

Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro and 33 others in February in connection with an alleged coup days after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office.

Gonet said Bolsonaro’s actions “were not limited to a passive stance of resistance to defeat, but were a conscious effort to create an environment conducive to violence and a coup.”

He also said the case was strong because “the criminal organization” behind the coup plot had “documented almost all of the actions described in the indictment through recordings, handwritten notes, digital files, spreadsheets and exchanges of electronic messages.”

The prosecution also seeks convictions for several close Bolsonaro allies, including his running mate in the 2022 election campaign and former defense minister, Walter Braga Netto, ex-Justice Minister Anderson Torres and Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp Mauro Cid.

Brazil’s Supreme Court president, Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, said that the U.S. “sanctions” — a reference to Trump’s tariffs — are based on “an inaccurate understanding” of events.

“For those who didn’t live through a dictatorship or don’t remember one, it’s worth remembering: there was a lack of freedom, torture, forced disappearances, the closure of Congress, and the persecution of judges,” Barroso said. “In today’s Brazil, no one is persecuted.”

Bolsonaro, a former military officer who was known to express nostalgia for the country’s past dictatorship, openly defied Brazil’s judicial system during his 2019-2022 term in office.

He has been banned by Brazil’s top electoral court from running in elections until 2030 over abuse of power while in office and casting unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.