US put sanctions on Judge Alexandre de Moraes as an apparent move by Donald Trump to help his ally
The supreme court judge presiding over the trial of Brazil’s ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, has a “cowardly and treacherous” plot is afoot to pave the way for another attack on the South American country’s democracy.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes was put under sanctions by the US on Wednesday, as part of an apparent push by Donald Trump to help his ally Bolsonaro escape punishment for allegedly masterminding an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Trump also slapped a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports in response to what he called the “witch-hunt” against the far-right former president.
On Friday, Moraes, a shaven-headed Muay Thai practitioner known by the nickname Xandão (‘Big Al’), came out swinging. He told the court that Trump’s tariffs and the “spurious” sanctions targeting him and other supreme court justices recently stripped of their US visas, were part of an “illegal and immoral” ruse to obstruct justice that was being engineered by a group of Brazilian “traitors” who had lobbied foreign authorities to carry out “hostile acts” against the country’s economy.
