BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday called for the Senate to bring charges against two Supreme Court justices, warning of an “institutional rupture” in his latest clash with the judiciary as investigations threaten him and his allies.
“It has been a while since Supreme Court Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Luis Roberto Barroso have exceeded constitutional limits with their acts,” Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter. “Everyone knows the consequences, internal and external, of an institutional rupture, which we neither provoke nor desire.”
On Friday, Moraes jailed the head of a party allied with the far-right president in a probe of online misinformation and anti-democratic threats. A day earlier, he opened a probe https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-supreme-court-judge-opens-probe-into-bolsonaro-over-investigation-leak-2021-08-12 of Bolsonaro for posting confidential material on social media in his push to substantiate unproven allegation of election fraud.
Barroso, who is also head of the federal electoral court, has pushed back forcefully against Bolsonaro’s claims, leading the president to call him a “son of a whore.” https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-senate-head-criticizes-bolsonaro-attacking-supreme-court-2021-08-06
Facing the expanding legal probes and legislative defeat for his proposal to overhaul Brazil’s voting systems, Bolsonaro has already threatened https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-rages-against-probe-threatens-act-beyond-constitution-2021-08-05 to respond outside his constitutional limits. On Tuesday, the formerly army captain took part in an unusual military display https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-rolls-out-tanks-cover-his-weak-position-2021-08-11 outside the presidential palace ahead of a key congressional vote.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Brad Haynes and Diane Craft)
