Bolsonaro's son leaves Brazil's Congress, moves to US amid feud with judge

Daniel Carvalho, Bloomberg News on Mar 18, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

A prominent son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is taking a leave of absence from Congress to live in the U.S., where he has sought to build Republican support for his father’s legal battles with the country’s Supreme Court.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who represents Sao Paulo in Brazil’s lower house, said in a video posted to social media Tuesday that he would remain in the U.S. to avoid possible imprisonment by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, without specifying or detailing the supposed legal threats he is facing.

The Supreme Court is currently considering criminal charges filed by Brazil’s top prosecutor alleging that Jair Bolsonaro attempted a coup following his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Moraes and other judges are set to determine later this month whether the right-wing former leader should face trial.

Eduardo Bolsonaro is currently in the U.S., where he has traveled repeatedly this year to draw the attention of Donald Trump’s administration and Republican lawmakers to the case against his father — and their claims that Moraes has overstepped his constitutional authority in investigations into the Bolsonaros and social media companies as part of a fight against so-called fake news.

In the video, the legislator accused Moraes and other judges of trying to “use my position as a lawmaker as a tool of blackmail and coercion” in order to “arrest me and prevent me from representing the best interests of my country.”

Despite the claims, two representatives of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party said they had no knowledge of any cases that could lead to the arrest of the congressman. Eduardo Bolsonaro didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The most recent case involving the legislator is a complaint from Lula’s Workers’ Party requesting that the Supreme Court seize his passport over allegations that he is violating Brazilian sovereignty by mobilizing U.S. officials against Moraes.

But Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet told the Supreme Court that the party’s claim should be rejected in a Tuesday afternoon legal filing, saying there was no justification for taking Eduardo Bolsonaro’s passport. Shortly after, Moraes officially dismissed the claim, according to another filing.

The lawmaker said he would take the temporary, unpaid leave of absence to “fully dedicate myself” to the cause of building U.S. support for his father and seek “the appropriate sanctions for human rights violators.” He said that his father could be “unjustly imprisoned,” and that he “may never have the chance to meet him personally again.”

The former president said in an interview in January that he hopes Trump’s return to the White House will help him overturn the eight-year political ban he received after the 2022 election.

Moraes has also drawn the ire of the right in both countries over his efforts to combat online misinformation, which have included demands that social media platforms take down accounts of users accused of spreading fake news. He suspended access to Elon Musk’s X last year, and in February blocked the U.S. video sharing service Rumble Inc. — moves that have earned blowback from some Republican lawmakers.

Trump’s media company sued Moraes after the Rumble order, accusing him of trying to illegally suppress the U.S. social media activity of conservative Brazilian voices.