Lawmaker son of Brazil’s Bolsonaro announces relocation to the US as father faces legal woes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2025 (235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will step down from Congress and relocate to the U.S., where he will seek amnesty for those convicted in the Jan. 8 riot in Brazil ‘s capital, he said in a video published on social media Tuesday.

Bolsonaro’s third son Eduardo also said he will push for sanctions against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading several investigations into his father’s actions, including allegations the far-right politician plotted a coup to stay in power after his election defeat in 2022 to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“I will focus 100% of my time on this single cause: to seek justice,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said in the video.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has traveled multiple times to the U.S. since Donald Trump returned to office. He has sought to draw parallels between the judicial enquiries Trump faced following the attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 and the legal problems his father is being confronted with.

“It is not easy knowing that my father may be unjustly imprisoned and I may never have the chance to meet him in person again,” Eduardo said in the video.

“I have no doubt that our enemies’ plan is to incarcerate him … just as would have happened with Donald Trump if he had not been reelected,” he added.

Like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede following his electoral defeat. He left for the U.S. days before the end of his term. One week after Lula took office, supporters of Bolsonaro invaded and ransacked Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasilia. More than 400 people have been convicted for their roles.

In his indictment of Bolsonaro and 33 others linked to him, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said the rampage was a last-ditch attempt to hold onto power. Gonet said that part of the plot to remain in office included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead de Moraes.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said he is a victim of political persecution. He refuted the accusations again on Sunday, during a demonstration he and his allies called to push for Congress to issue a pardon to those in jail for their roles in the Jan. 8, 2023 riot.

Eduardo Bolsonaro’s decision to relocate to the U.S. comes after a Workers’ Party lawmaker asked the Supreme Court on Feb. 27 to seize his passport. Congressman Lindbergh Farias argued that according to press reports, Eduardo Bolsonaro has sought to negotiate with U.S. lawmakers a bill to “attack and intimidate” Brazil’s Supreme Court since Trump’s inauguration.

De Moraes sent Farias’ request to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Gonet on Tuesday afternoon recommended against seizing Eduardo’s passport, citing a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

Eduardo Bolsonaro was on his way to the U.S. when Farias filed the request, having just returned from the country a couple of days prior. He has been in the U.S. since.

A panel of five of Brazil’s 11 Supreme Court justices will gather in the capital Brasilia on March 25 to decide whether the former president and several of his allies will stand trial on five counts.

If the trial goes ahead and Bolsonaro is convicted, he could spend decades behind bars.

Bolsonaro has already 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.