Brazil’s president accused of corruption, obstruction

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s top prosecutor is accusing President Michel Temer of corruption and obstruction of justice, according to an investigation released by the country’s top court Friday.

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 two former presidents.

Attorney General Rodrigo Janot’s charges against Temer dramatically increase the threat to drive the president out of office and represent an extraordinary escalation of a corruption probe that is upending politics and just about everything else in Latin America’s largest nation.

The formal presentation of evidence is the latest revelations 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 Globo newspaper Wednesday night and has been rocking the country ever since.

In a plea bargain by the same man who recorded Temer, released as part of the document dump by the Supreme Tribunal Federal, the president is accused of taking $1.5 million in bribes.

Janot says Temer and Sen. Aecio Neves have tried to derail the three-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 to 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.

On Friday, former Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa added his voice.

“There is not another way out: Brazilians must organize, go to the streets and demand with strength the immediate resignation of Michel Temer,” tweeted Barbosa.

Temer’s administration began questioning both the legality and content of the recording first reported by Globo.

“President Michel Temer does not believe in the veracity of the declarations” in the recording, according to a statement from his office.

The statement also noted that the person who made the recording, JBS meat-packing company executive Joesley Batista, is under investigation himself and thus was “taking advantage” of the situation. The recording was turned over to prosecutors as part of a Batista plea bargain.

In the documents released Friday, Batista also said his company paid Temer about $1.5 million from 2010 to 2017. Some of those funds were disguised as legal campaign donations and others were channeled to Temer’s public image consultant Elsinho Mouco, Batista said.

Attempts to locate Mouco for comment were not successful. The presidency also didn’t immediately respond to queries seeking comment about the latest revelations.

In Batista’s plea bargain, he also told authorities that he transferred $150 million to offshore bank accounts for campaigns of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor in the presidency, Dilma Rousseff.

Batista said former finance minister Guido Mantega was the middle man in the operation. He also said both former presidents were aware of the transfers, but did not say where the accounts were based. Batista also didn’t say for which campaigns the money was transferred.

Rousseff denied the accusations in a statement and said she never had offshore bank accounts. Silva’s spokesman said Batista’s accusations are hearsay that was never investigated.

The revelations are the latest fallout from the sprawling “Car Wash” probe that began three years ago and already has put dozens of Brazil’s top businessmen and politicians in prison. Many more are being investigated.

Temer addressed the nation on Thursday, denying that he had authorized any bribes and vowing to continue in office.