Thread by @BrianMteleSUR

Last week I did a story for @telesurenglish on the Brazilian Supreme Court's green-lighting of a criminal investigation against Pres. Jair Bolsonaro for inciting terrorism. In this thread I'll describe some of the other crimes he and his family are under investigation for. +

@telesurenglish I believe that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty - a right that was systematically ignored by the New York Times and WAPO during 6 years of character assassination of Dilma Rousseff, Lula and the PT. This thread is just to explain the charges. I'm not pre-judging

On 7/202022, Senator Jean Paul Prates filed impeachment request number 146, for abuse of authority, after the President met with a group of ambassadors to delegitimize Brazil's electronic voting system without presenting any evidence. cartacapital.com.br/cartaexpressa/…

All 146 impeachment requests against Pres. Bolsonaro - have been blocked because he dished out $billions in pork to enough lawmakers to prevent any process from coming to the floor, let along getting the 342 votes necessary to pass. Photo: Bolsonaro with House Pres. Artur Lira

Nevertheless, each request represents at least one accusation of a crime. Many are related to corruption, such as Impeachment request 130, which accuses him of facilitating kickbacks through overpricing multimillion-dollar vaccine purchases. brasil247.com/regionais/bras…

Lawmakers, academics, social movements, unions and individuals have filed impeachment requests. Even ex-children's TV star Xuxa signed one (w/ liberation theology priest Julio Lancelotti & Felipe Neto) accusing Bolsonaro of abuse of authority for promoting quack Covid 19 cures.

Indy media outlet @agenciapublica has brief descriptions of all 146 impeachment requests against President Bolsonaro available (in Portuguese) here: apublica.org/impeachment-bo…

Moving on to criminal charges. 197 criminal charges have been filed against Bolsonaro. Most are related to corruption. Granted charges were filed against FHC, Dilma, and Lula too, but this is a record number, nearly double the 104 filed against Pres. Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Crimes he's been accused of include enabling embezzlement and kickbacks in the Covid 19 response program, inciting a riot on 9/7/ 2021, & abusing authority by recommend citizens to ignore his own public health systems sanitary guidelines for Covid 19. diariodopoder.com.br/coluna-claudio…

2 days ago, Attorney General/Bolsonaro ally Augusto Aras, threw out 104 additional requests for investigation submitted by the Supreme Court for abuse of power, attacks against the voting system and sabotage of the public health system's Covid 19 response. noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultim…

Moving to Bolsonaro's family. 3rd wife/current 1st lady Michelle's grandmother did 3 years in prison after being caught in 1997 with 169 bags of Merla - a toxic drug made from Coca paste and kerosene. Michelle has had nothing to do with her for years. veja.abril.com.br/brasil/michell…

In 1988, Michelle's mother, Maria das Graças was charged with falsifying government records to create a second identity, by the civil police fraud unit, who didn't move forwards quickly enough to prevent the case being dropped after 5 years due to the statute of limitations

Michelle got tangled in a payroll skimming investigation against her stepson Flavio in 2020, when police discovered his fixer Fabricio Queiroz had made 21 deposits totaling R$89,000 into her savings account. She was later removed from the investigation. bbc.com/portuguese/bra…

This was not the end of her police problems. Last October the States Attorney opened an influence peddling investigation against her, for allegedly using her clout to facilitate loans for fundamentalist Christian cronies from Federal mortgage bank Caixa. exame.com/brasil/mpf-vai…

Flavio Bolsonaro was elected to Rio's state congress at 22, and spent 16 years in office, employing the girlfriend and mother of his friend, Adriano Nobrega, leader of the "Crime Office" militia implicated in the murder of Marielle Franco. brasildefato.com.br/2020/08/10/fla…

For more on the relationship between Flavio, his dad Jair, and militia members/condominium neighbors allegedly involved in the murder of Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes see this @BRASILWIRE piece published a year after hear death. brasilwire.com/bolsonaro-mili…

There's an ongoing salary skimming investigation involving ghost employees in Flavio Bolsnoaro's Cabinet, connected the Crime Office militia, allegedly coordinated by his militia-tied fixer/employee Fabricio Queiroz - seen here making the shooting gesture next to dad Jair.

Flavio's alleged scam used to happen all the time in Chicago when I was growing up in the 70s. A politician hires people who don't have to actually show up to work - often friends and relatives of organized crime cronies - and gets half their salaries kicked back every month.

Flavio Bolsonaro allegedly used this scam to benefit a militia. Side bar: I am one of the first people to ever write about Rio militias in English. Unfortunately this article was heavily edited into Vice lad/bro English it's not my headline vice.com/en/article/7bw…

When this scandal broke, Fabricio Quieroz fled but was caught hiding in a Bolsonaro family lawyer's house, the President has done everything he can - including transferring Rio's Federal Police chief - to keep his son from going to jail. metropoles.com/brasil/politic…

Due to the payroll skimming and Marielle Franco murder investigations, militia chief Adriano Nobrega fled Rio for the mountains of Bahia. But he was ambushed and assassinated by Bahian Military Police in February 2020. Most people believe it was to keep him from testifying.

After 2 years of the President's threats, firings, transferring police investigators and negotiating with the Supreme Court, it dismissed the skimming investigation, but the Rio State's Attn's office just announced it has new evidence and is restarting it. g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-jane…

Here's son number 2, Rio City Councilor Carlos (left). Carlos appears to have allegedly learned a thing or two from his big brother, as he is also under investigation for skimming salaries from ghost employees on his payroll.

Last September Rio Judge Marcello Rubioli, who was overseeing the investigation, said there was "ample evidence" that Councilor Carlos had, "engaged in organized crime activity" and that it appeared that Carlos was the head of an organized crime group. correiobraziliense.com.br/politica/2021/…

Carlos is also under federal police and congressional investigation for allegedly leading a "Digital Militia" which uses Cambridge Analytica style tactics to illegally slander political rivals and violate campaign laws. istoe.com.br/como-funcionam…

3rd son and Congressman Eduardo, seen here with MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, is the Bolsonaro family liason to Steve Bannon's Movement. An investigation into purchases of real estate with cash was recently shelved.

It's been widely reported that Eduardo was present at the Jan. 5 "War Council" meeting in Washington DC, with Lindell, Gulianni, Powell, etc as they allegedly planned the Capitol invasion. This triggered a Brazilian Congressional investigation in 3/2021. brasilwire.com/eduardo-bolson…

I tweeted about this on Saturday so will just link to it here, but basically US Congressman Jamie Raskin told a group of Brazilian activists last week that he is going to submit Eduardo Bolsonaro's name in the ongoing case of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

https://twitter.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1553369064176861184

Side Note: When Bolsonaro announced his plan to appoint Eduardo as ambassador to the US - despite 0 experience and apparent ignorance of who Henry Kissinger is - Coup-friendly corporate think tank AS/COA spokesman Brian Winter tried to spin this blatant nepotism as a positive.

Son number 4, Renan, is also under Federal Police investigation for influence peddling. This May, Businessman Luís Felipe Belmonte admitted paying R$9.4 million to reform Renan's Brasília office. Federal Police are investigating if there was quid pro quo.brasildefato.com.br/2022/05/13/emp…

Unlike a lot of journalists, I believe suspects should be innocent until proven guilty. Lula was treated as guilty until proven innocent by WAPO, Guardian and NYT for years and the word corruption still often comes up in these papers when his name is mentioned. cotd

Although Lula's convictions have all been reversed and all attempts to start new Lava Jato based investigations have been dismissed in court for lack of evidence, a lot of these investigations into the Bolsonaro family are still ongoing. cotd

In other words, any journalist who uses the word "corruption" in association with Lula without mentioning any of the multiple investigations underway against the Bolsonaro family is either incredibly ignorant or acting in bad faith.

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