SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil’s Prosecutor General charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion, according to a statement on Monday, in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup.
The younger Bolsonaro has “repeatedly sought to subordinate the interests of Brazil and the entire society to his own personal and family agenda,” the prosecutor general’s office said in the statement.
Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the U.S. earlier this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father, and has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50% tariffs on most Brazilian goods.
The lawmaker linked the charge to fresh sanctions imposed by the U.S. on wife of Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the former president’s trial, calling the staff of the Prosecutor General’s office “Moraes’ lackeys”.
Eduardo Bolsonaro added that he received news of the “bogus accusation” from the press, and would wait for the legal case to be communicated through official channels before making a formal statement.
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes; Writing by Isabel Teles; Editing by Gabriel Araujo, Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama )
