Brazil Court Convicts Eduardo Bolsonaro, Son of Ex-President, of Lobbying US Interference
Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, on Tuesday of seeking United States intervention in his father’s coup trial, sentencing him in absentia to four years and two months in prison. The unanimous decision by three justices on a four-member panel marked the latest legal reckoning for the family at the center of Brazil’s most contentious political battle in decades.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former congressman who relocated to the United States in 2025, was charged with lobbying the Trump administration to impose tariffs and sanctions on Brazil as a way to pressure officials handling his father’s case. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat.
A Foreign Campaign to Free His Father
Prosecutors accused Eduardo Bolsonaro of mounting an illegal campaign to enlist the Trump administration as a backdoor lever against Brazilian courts. In July 2025, President Donald Trump issued a letter announcing 50 percent tariffs on certain Brazilian products citing the elder Bolsonaro’s trial directly. “This Trial should not be taking place,” Trump wrote at the time. “It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”
The conviction drew a sharp response from Eduardo Bolsonaro, who called the ruling “baseless and senseless” on social media, arguing the justices wanted to block him from running for elected office. He added that he was never formally served and learned of the case only through media reports.
Eduardo Bolsonaro previously told the BBC he was living in “exile” out of fear of arrest if he returned to Brazil. In March 2025, he pledged to move to the United States full time to “focus 100 percent” of his energy on “a single cause”: freeing his father.
US Pressure Campaign Against Brazilian Courts
Beyond tariffs, the Trump administration sanctioned Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the Bolsonaro case, accusing him of abusing his authority to “target political opponents” and “suppress dissent.” The sanctions were later expanded to include de Moraes’s family members and other Brazilian judicial officials.
Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, condemned those actions as unacceptable interference in Brazil’s domestic affairs. Lula said Brazil was willing to negotiate trade with Washington but drew a firm line at sanctions targeting its judiciary. As relations improved, the Trump administration lifted the tariffs and repealed the sanctions against de Moraes in December.
During a visit to the White House in May, Lula described his meeting with Trump as productive, though the question of what role the US president might play in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election remains open. A CNT/MDA poll released this week projected Lula would receive 49.3 percent of the vote in a runoff against Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the ex-president’s eldest son, compared to Flavio’s 40.2 percent.
Justice Zanin: Not Opinion, But Criminal Conduct
Justice Cristiano Zanin, who delivered the court’s opinion, drew a clear line between political speech and criminal lobbying. “It wasn’t merely an expression of opinion or a political stance, but rather conduct that clearly threatened Brazilian authorities and Brazilian citizens themselves,” Zanin said, calling Eduardo Bolsonaro’s actions “illegitimate and criminal.”
Trump, meanwhile, has previously weighed in on the Bolsonaro case with characteristic bluntness. “This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent – Something I know much about!” the US president said when the elder Bolsonaro was convicted. The former Brazilian leader thanked Trump for his support.
Both the former US president and former Brazilian president overlapped in office between 2019 and 2021, cultivating a close relationship built on shared political instincts. Both subsequently lost presidential elections and refused to publicly acknowledge defeat.
