Brazil congressional report recommends shelving Temer charges

BRASILIA, (Reuters) - A Brazilian congressional report recommended yesterday that President Michel Temer should not face trial for obstruction of justice and membership in a criminal organization, arguing that the charges against him were unfounded.

The report by Congressman Bonifacio de Andrada, a Temer ally, also recommended shelving charges against two of his cabinet ministers stemming from a corruption case involving bribes paid by meatpacker JBS SA.

The constitutional and legal affairs committee in Brazil’s Congress was expected to approve the report next week. The full lower house, which has the power to decide whether a president should be put on trial by the Supreme Court, will likely close the case a week later.

That victory for Temer would all but ensure that Brazil’s most unpopular modern day president will survive the crisis and serve out his term through the end of 2018. But fighting off the charges has seriously delayed and could derail the president’s efforts to balance Brazil’s government accounts.

Temer took office last year after the impeachment of his leftist predecessor Dilma Rousseff. He vowed to clean up the government in the midst of Brazil’s worst corruption scandal.

Instead he was accused of taking bribes and condoning the payment of hush money to a jailed politician in plea bargain testimony by Joesley Batista, an owner of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker.