SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court found former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro guilty on Tuesday of coercion in connection with the trial that last year put his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, behind bars for 27 years following a coup attempt conviction.
The court handed down a sentence of four years and two months in prison. All five justices who heard the case agreed that Eduardo Bolsonaro had illegally meddled by pressuring the U.S. government to threaten Brazilian officials in an effort to derail that trial.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who also presided over the elder Bolsonaro’s coup case, stated that Eduardo Bolsonaro’s role as a federal lawmaker “is not to lobby overseas against his own country.” De Moraes and his wife were both sanctioned by the U.S. government in July of last year.
Defense attorneys for Eduardo Bolsonaro pushed back against the verdict, arguing that the evidence presented was insufficient to support a conviction. The former lawmaker has been residing in the state of Texas since February 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil last year as a show of protest over the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, who had attempted to reverse his 2022 electoral loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Relations between Trump and Lula appeared to warm in early May when the Brazilian president traveled to the White House for a visit. However, by June, the U.S. government was again proposing 25% tariffs on Brazilian imports, accusing the country — the world’s tenth-largest economy — of engaging in unfair trade practices.
Lula stated that during his Washington visit in early May, he presented Trump with documents demonstrating that the United States actually holds a trade surplus with Brazil.
Eduardo Bolsonaro offered no public comment following the Supreme Court’s ruling. He is currently on the campaign trail supporting his brother, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who is expected to mount a challenge against Lula in October’s elections — though that candidacy has recently been clouded by a scandal involving a payment to a disgraced banker.
Eduardo and Flávio Bolsonaro recently made a trip to Washington, where they met with U.S. officials, including Trump.
