Brazil’s President Temer is Charged with Corruption, Again

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL- With only two days left before stepping down as Brazil’s top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, presented to the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday (September 14th) new charges against Brazilian President Michel Temer.

Janot accuses the President as well as some current and former aides and allies of obstruction of justice and being part of a criminal organization.

“As members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), with free and conscious will, in a stable, professionalized preordained, with defined structure and with distribution of tasks, were included to the political nucleus of a criminal organization [created] to commit a myriad of criminal offenses,” said the prosecutor in the charges filed.

President Temer along with current cabinet members Eliseu Padilha (Chief of Staff) and Wellington Moreira Franco (General Secretary), and former allies and aides Geddel Vieira Lima, Henrique Eduardo Alves, Eduardo Cunha and Rodrigo Rocha Loures participated in a corruption scheme involving members of the PMDB party in order to obtain ‘undue advantages’ stated the official.

According to Janot, the ‘organization’ received more than R$587 million in bribes since 2006. The official also claims that Temer had an active part in trying to buy the silence of money operator Lúcio Funaro, today one of the prosecutors’ most important informers.

This is the second time Janot, who is stepping down as top federal prosecutor in Brazil on Sunday, charges the President with corruption.

In late June, Janot, filed corruption charges against President Temer with the country’s Supreme Court (STF). The accusations, however, were not accepted by the Chamber of Deputies and the charges were dropped.

Like the first time, the Lower House will not create a special commission to analyze the charges and vote on whether or not to accept the accusations.

If the accusations are accepted by members of the Chamber, the charges will be reviewed by the Senate (with the Supreme Court presiding).