American sanctions Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, who

Washington – The Treasury Department sanctioned a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court on Wednesday that supervises the case against former President Jair Bolsonaro, claiming that the judge is responsible for human rights violations and politicized prosecutions.

The sanctions announced by the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, Target Alexandre de Moraes, who has served in the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court since 2017. The Trump administration accused De Moraes of abusing his authority to attack political opponents, including Bolsonaro, an ally of Mr. Trump.

Justice too ordered a closure of X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, in Brazil, last year. Access to the The site was restored last October.

“Alexandre de Moraes has been in charge of being a judge and jury in an illegal witch hunt against Brazilian and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Besent said in a statement. “De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary arrests that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions, even against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Today’s action makes it clear that the treasure will continue to hold those who threaten the interests of the United States and the freedoms of our citizens.”

The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the United States is sanctioning Moraes for “serious” human rights abuses, including the arrest of people without presenting positions and violating freedom of expression.

Rubio said that De Moraes also “abused his authority by participating in an objective and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics through the issuance of secret orders that convincing online platforms, including social media companies in the United States, prohibit people accounts to publish a protected speech.”

“The United States will use all appropriate and legal and effective diplomatic, political and legal instruments to protect the discourse of Americans from foreign malignant actors who would seek to undermine it,” he said in a statement.

Bolsonaro is In trial for allegedly orchestrate a scheme remain in office after the 2022 elections in Brazil. He was accused in November, and prosecutors accused the former leader of Brazil and seven others to try to “violently overthrow the democratic order.” Bolsonaro lost the 2022 race to his leftist opponent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He has denied the accusations and called the Prosecutor’s Office a “witch hunt.”

Trump has publicly defended Bolsonaro and called for his treatment an “international misfortune.” In a letter from July 9 to Lula published on social networks, the president said that the trial that involves Bolsonaro is a “witch hunt that should end immediately!”

Trump also slapped 50% of tariffs on Brazilian products imported to the US on Wednesday. In an executive order that imposed the encumbrances, the president said that the actions of the Government of Brazil are “disgusting to the moral and political values of democratic and free societies and conflicts with the policy of the United States to promote democratic governments throughout the world, the principle of free expression and free and fair elections, the government of the law and respect for human rights.”

The directive mentioned De Moraes by name and said that their actions cool and limit expression in the United States, violate human rights and undermine the interest that the United States has to protect its citizens and companies at home and abroad. “

The president had said in a letter to Lula earlier this month warning of the tariffs that his administration concluded that the United States “must move away from the long -standing commercial relationship and very unfair generated by the Brazilian and non -artal rate, policies and commercial barriers.”

The United States has a commercial surplus with Brazil and exported approximately $ 49 billion in goods to the country last year, according to the United States Census Office. Brazil exported approximately $ 42 billion in products to the United States in 2024.

• Brazil
• Sanctions
• Treasury Department of the United States
• Jair Bolsonaro