Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, notorious for using his power to persecute and otherwise silence conservatives, issued an order on Thursday demanding that former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro begin a four-year prison sentence on charges of discussing politics in the United States.
Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro and brother of presidential frontrunner Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, is currently in the United States, requesting political asylum in response to de Moraes’s attempts to imprison him. The Congressman lost his position in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, due to his absence from the country, but has continued to provide political commentary and support his brother from abroad.
Eduardo Bolsonaro’s offending action that prompted de Moraes to press charges was a visit to the White House in May 2026 alongside his brother Flávio to meet with President Donald Trump. In that meeting, Eduardo Bolsonaro denounced the Brazilian top court, formally the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), for its attempts to use prosecution on “fake news” grounds to silence conservatives and its imprisonment of his father Jair over alleged “crimes against democracy.” Eduardo reportedly supported American sanctions on his country in response to the human rights situation under socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Flávio’s opponent in the presidential election.
Shortly after the Bolsonaro brothers’ visit, President Trump issued an executive order declaring Brazil a “national security” threat and imposing a 50-percent tariff on the country.
Justice de Moraes then began legal proceedings at the STF against Eduardo Bolsonaro for alleged foreign interference against the interests of the country. He found Bolsonaro guilty and sentenced him to four years and two months in prison, in addition to banning him from holding public office for eight years.
“It is not the function of a Brazilian federal deputy to lobby abroad against his own country,” de Moraes declared in his sentence. “Since the imperial constitution to today, that has not been considered a deputy’s function. Even if he was exercising his mandate, this would not be covered by immunity.”
On Thursday, Justice de Moraes issued an order that Bolsonaro’s prison sentence should begin immediately, as well as the cancelation of Bolsonaro’s passport, which would make him unable to leave the United States and potentially jeopardize his legal status in the country.
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Eduardo Bolsonaro responded to the order on social media, arguing that de Moraes was using his case in an attempt to affect the presidential election. Brazilian voters were to the polls on October 4 to choose among 13 presidential candidates. Flávio Bolsonaro won, but did not pass the 50-percent threshold to be elected president and thus will face the runner-up, President Lula, in a runoff vote on October 25.
“Even after the clear message of ‘enough is enough’ delivered at the ballot box, Alexandre de Moraes is once again throwing the country into turmoil with an arbitrary, ill-timed, and futile ruling,” Eduardo Bolsonaro declared, “given that the United States has already made it clear that it will not comply with such delusional decisions.”
“The only practical effect of this measure, deliberately taken in the midst of the electoral process, is to further inflame tensions across the country, entirely unnecessarily,” he continued. “Fortunately, on October 25, the Brazilian people will deliver their final verdict by electing Flávio Bolsonaro, who, together with the new Congress, will restore normalcy to Brazil.”
De Moraes is facing his own struggles on the STF. Another STF justice, André Mendonça, recently revealed suspicious texts between de Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, currently being investigated in a corruption case, that appear to indicate de Moraes was improperly involving himself in the case. STF Justice Luiz Fux added to the pressure this week by requesting full access to all the records related to de Moraes’s years-long “fake news” persecution of conservative. Reportedly of particular note for Justice Fux was de Moraes holding a meeting on Tuesday with leaders of the Brazilian federal police that could have implicated de Moraes in improper collusion with the executive branch.
“The fact that Moraes visited [STF Chief Justice] Edson Fachin’s office shortly after the meeting with the PF [federal police] chiefs caused even more buzz in the Court,”the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported, citing informed sources.
It remains unclear at press time if the STF’s interest in the “fake news” probe or de Moraes’s involvement in the banking case have any direct relationship to the Eduardo Bolsonaro case.
As the runoff election approaches, early polls show Flávio Bolsonaro with a meaningful, though small, advantage over Lula. According to a poll published by the firm Datafolha this week, which tends to lean left, Bolsonaro is holding on to about 52 percent of the vote to Lula’s 48 percent. The poll found Lula with a lead in only one region of the country: the Northeast, traditionally a socialist stronghold. The poll’s margin of error was =/- two percent, making this one of the few polls during this election cycle showing either candidate achieving a lead larger than the margin of error.
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