U.S. sanctions Brazilian judge oversees Bolsonaro case

U.S. officials said Wednesday they will approve Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of authorizing “arbitrary pre-trial detention” and suppressing “freedom of speech.”

Judge Moras has been leading the investigation into allegations against Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro and his allies after losing the coup after the 2022 election.

Bolsonaro denied the allegations and called Judge Moraes a “dictator.”

Shortly after the sanctions were announced, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to raise Brazil’s tariffs to 50%.

Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on social media earlier this month by Brazil’s current president Lueinácio Lulada Silva.

In it, Trump accused Brazil of “attacking” against American tech companies and conducting “witch hunting” on Bolsonaro.

The executive order of the tariff does not include several major exports from Brazil, including orange juice, some aircraft parts and energy products.

The order also links tariffs directly to Brazil’s “political motivations, intimidation, harassment, censorship and prosecution”.

Brazil threatens to match any tariffs imposed by the United States.

The United States is Brazil’s second largest trading partner after China, so hiking will crack down on South American countries.

Brazil is the 15th largest trading partner in the United States, and its main imports are mineral fuels, aircraft and machinery.

As far as the United States is concerned, the United States imports gasoline and oil, iron and coffee from Brazil.

When sanctions against Justice Moras were announced on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Moraes of conducting “illegal witch hunting against us, Brazilian citizens and companies.”

Bessent added that the judges “responsible for censoring oppressive campaigns, arbitrary detention and politicized prosecutions for human rights violations, including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.”

“Today’s lawsuit makes it clear that the Treasury Department will continue to be responsible for those who threaten the interests of the United States and our civil liberties,” he said.

The BBC has sentenced to comment with Moraes.

In addition to leading the investigation into Bolsonaro, Judge Moraes has previously ordered the publication of some social media accounts in the United States, including American media, to publish false information.

Trump Media, the U.S. president’s company, runs his Truth-Social Platform, is one of the rulings of U.S. tech companies and Brazilian courts regarding orders to suspend social media accounts.

The country also briefly banned Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), after the platform refused to close what Brazil believed was accounts, spreading misinformation about the 2022 presidential election.

Last month, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that social media companies could be responsible for content posted on their platforms.

The latest sanctions mark a new escalation in an increasingly tense relationship between Brazil and the United States under Trump’s second term.

During Trump’s first semester, the U.S. President and former Brazilian President Bolsonaro enjoyed friendly relations when the presidency overlapped, and the two met at the White House in 2019.

Both subsequently lost the presidential election and both refused to publicly admit defeat.

Bolsonaro, who ruled in Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was tried for allegedly storming the government building in January 2023 with thousands of supporters in the capital after allegedly winning the election in Lula.

Judge Moraes imposed a series of pre-trial restrictions on Bolsonaro, including night and weekend curfews and 24-hour surveillance to prevent him from fleeing the country.

He was also ordered to avoid contact with foreign governments and their embassies in Brazil and wear ankle labels.

In early July, Trump compared Bolsonaro’s prosecution to the legal case he also faced.

“This is just an attack on a political opponent, but my attack on a political opponent!” Trump once said. In response, Bolsonaro thanked the US president for his support.