Brazil’s top prosecutor accuses Temer of obstructing justice
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s top prosecutor is accusing President Michel Temer of corruption and obstruction of justice, according to an investigation released Friday by the supreme court, dramatically escalating pressure to force the embattled leader from office.
At the same time, other released documents said the owner of a major meatpacker has told prosecutors that he transferred $150 million to offshore accounts for the campaigns of Temer’s two predecessors in the presidency.
Attorney General Rodrigo Janot’s charges against Temer threaten to drive him from the presidency and
represent an extraordinary development in a corruption probe that is upending politics and just about everything else in Latin America’s largest nation.
For Temer, a 76-yearold career politician who
was not elected, the fallout could cost him his job. Temer, then vice president, took power a year ago after President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and later removed from office for illegally managing the federal budget.
By Friday afternoon, O Globo, the flagship paper of Brazil’s largest media company, was calling for Temer’s resignation, delivering a significant blow to Temer’s prospects for survival. The media group had supported Temer’s proposed economic overhaul, and more generally wields enormous influence because of its popular soap operas and media dominance.
The attorney general’s formal presentation of evidence is the latest revelation related to a secretly recorded audio that purportedly captured Temer endorsing the paying of hush money to an ex-lawmaker now serving a 15-year prison sentence for corruption. The audio was first reported by O Globo on Wednesday night and has been rocking the country ever since.
In a plea bargain that was part of the documents released Friday by the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the same man who reportedly recorded the president also says he paid $1.5 million in bribes to Temer.
Janot said Temer and Sen. Aecio Neves have tried to derail the 3-year-old “Car Wash” investigation into a huge kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras via legislative means and by influencing police investigators.
“In this way, there is evidence of possibly committing the crime of obstructing justice,” Janot wrote.
Because the case involves a sitting president, the process is different than in any other kind of criminal case. With a formal investigation now opened, Janot’s next step will be to decide whether his case is strong enough to send it for consideration by the lower Chamber of Deputies in Congress.
If at least two-thirds of the members of the lower house voted in favor, the case would be sent back to the top court, which would then decide whether to put Temer on trial. If the court decided to try Temer, he would be suspended from office for up to 180 days. A conviction would permanently remove him from office.
At least eight pieces of proposed legislation to impeach Temer have been submitted in Congress, and a stream of people from many walks of life has been calling for him to step down.