Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, of lobbying the US to pressure Brazil’s judiciary in his father’s 2022 coup trial. The court sentenced Eduardo in absentia to four years and two months in prison and banned him from holding public office for eight years, citing coercion and threats against judicial authorities [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Eduardo Bolsonaro has lived in the United States since February 2025, actively lobbying the Trump administration to impose sanctions and tariffs if Brazil did not drop charges against Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election and is serving a 27-year sentence [1, 11, 2, 3, 5].
US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods and sanctioned Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in mid-2025, citing the trial as justification. These measures were later rescinded following talks between Trump and Brazilian President Lula da Silva [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10]. Justice de Moraes, who presided over Eduardo’s case, criticized the lobbying efforts, saying, “A federal lawmaker's job is not to lobby overseas against his own country” [3, 4, 5, 9, 10].
Eduardo was stripped of his seat in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies in December 2025 for excessive absences. The Supreme Court’s sentence also includes a fine equivalent to 100 minimum wages (about 162,100 reais or $31,700 USD) [3, 4, 5, 10].
Eduardo Bolsonaro denied wrongdoing, calling the trial “a Witch Hunt” aimed at removing him from upcoming elections. He stated, “The real purpose of this senseless trial is only one: to remove my name from the elections” [2, 3]. Following his conviction, the Bolsonaro family maintains the trial is politically motivated targeting their movement [1, 2].
Relations between Brazil and the US further strained after Trump met Eduardo’s brother Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil’s October 2026 presidential election [3, 4, 10]. Eduardo Bolsonaro plans to run as a substitute Senate candidate in that election [3, 4, 9, 10].
