Brazilian court begins Bolsonaro trial that may bar him from politics

Brazil’s top electoral court has begun hearing a case that could torpedo the political future of former president Jair Bolsonaro by rendering him ineligible for public office for eight years.

Thursday’s session in the capital, Brasilia, began with Judge Benedito Goncalves reading his report on the case filed by Brazil’s Democratic Labor Party, which will have time to make its arguments, as will Bolsonaro’s lawyers.

Already two subsequent sessions have been slated for next Tuesday and next Thursday, but the trial could extend for several months if any of the six other judges requests additional time to review the case.

In comments to journalists on Wednesday outside the Senate, the former president acknowledged he could be barred from public office, although he denied any wrongdoing.

"I would like to remain 100 percent active in politics, and taking away my political rights, which in my opinion is an affront, you lose a little bit of that fuel,” Bolsonaro said Thursday morning in comments published on his YouTube channel.

If the electoral court strips Bolsonaro of his political rights, he could appeal to the Supreme Court. However, there are other suits pending with the electoral court seeking the same outcome.

And that is just a fraction of his legal troubles, which also include criminal investigations.

Trial based around key meeting

While Bolsonaro often railed against the voting system, the suit’s focus is a meeting last year on July 18 that Bolsonaro convened at the presidential palace with foreign ambassadors, which was broadcast on state television for nearly an hour.

The report will be analysed by the court’s panel, which is comprised of judges from Brazil's two top courts, the Supreme Court and the superior court of justice, plus two appointees.

In his report on the case, Paulo Gonet Branco, one of the top prosecutors at Brazil’s electoral court, recommended barring Bolsonaro from public office.

Branco’s report asserts that Bolsonaro misled voters about a Federal Police investigation into the 2018 elections in order to claim the voting system isn’t reliable and that he presented that information to ambassadors in the meeting last year.

The Supreme Court is simultaneously investigating the former president for having shared details of that investigation — a case proceeding under seal.

Rodrigo Prando, a political science professor at Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo said the evidence against him Bolsonaro "is very robust."

"Bolsonaro speaks in live broadcasts, on Twitter. I never saw anyone provide so much material against himself as Bolsonaro did," Prando said.