Brazil’s chief slams corruption charges
SAO PAULO — Brazil’s president on Tuesday dismissed corruption allegations against him as a “soap opera plot” and cast doubt on the motivations of the country’s top prosecutor a day after he presented a scathing indictment.
President Michel Temer is fighting to hold on to his job after Attorney General Rodrigo Janot filed an indictment with the Supreme Federal Tribunal on Monday. The charge sheet accuses Temer of corruption, alleging he accepted bribes from an executive at a major meatpacker in exchange for help in influencing the decisions of state bodies.
The prosecutors “created a soap opera plot,” Temer said in a brief statement to reporters and allies, his first comments since the charge sheet was presented. “I say without fear of being wrong that the accusation is fiction.”
Relying on innuendo, Temer also implied that Janot himself might be involved in a kickback scheme. The president noted that a former aide to the prosecutor is making “millions” working with the law firm representing the company at the center of the accusations against Temer.
“Maybe the millions in fees received weren’t only for the trusted aide, but … I will not conjecture,” Temer said.
Janot’s office said in a statement that the former aide mentioned by Temer did not take part in the JBS plea bargain negotiations. It reaffirmed the top prosecutor’s “probity, transparency and responsibility in his dealings in the public sphere.”
The president’s office did not respond to a request to elaborate.
Temer poured out a stream of adjectives to heap scorn on the accusations against him, calling them injurious, undignified, infamous, shaky, dangerous, irresponsible, frail and precarious.
After Temer’s address, many took to Twitter to mock his assertion that he was proud to be president and didn’t “know how God put me here.” Many posted photos of things in strange places, like a cow on a roof or a horse on a balcony.
The actions Temer is accused of doing reportedly occurred this year, three years into the largest corruption investigation in the country’s history, known as Operation Car Wash.
Janot’s indictment was widely expected, and markets mostly met them with a shrug on Tuesday. The benchmark Bovespa fell 0.9 percent, while the Brazilian real currency was down about the same rate against the dollar.
While Temer’s approval rating has dropped to 7 percent, his fate rests with the lower house of Congress, which now must decide whether the charges move forward. If twothirds of that chamber votes to accept the indictment, then the president will be suspended for up to 180 days while a trial is conducted. House Speaker Rodrigo Maia, a Temer ally, would be president in the interim.
If found guilty, Temer would face a $3 million fine and two to 12 years in prison.
Temer is also under investigation over allegations of obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy, and Janot is expected to file those charges in the coming days.
The indictment itself said Temer showed a total disregard for his office and that his actions, including secret meetings not on his official calendar, showed he was trying to cover up “criminal actions.”
Temer has denied the allegations and said he will not resign but will instead fight the charges.
Temer, who took over in May 2016 after President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and later removed from office, has the lowest approval rating of a president since 1989.