The political drama surrounding Brazil’s former first family has intensified after the nation’s highest court convicted the son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro for attempting to secure US military and economic intervention.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, 41, a former Brazilian congressman currently residing in the United States, was sentenced in absentia to four years and two months in prison. The Supreme Court found him guilty of illicitly lobbying Washington authorities to impose heavy sanctions and economic tariffs on Brazil in an attempt to disrupt his father’s high-profile coup trial last year.
The elder Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence after being found guilty of orchestrating a military coup plot to overturn his 2022 election defeat. Following his father’s legal troubles, Eduardo relocated to the US in 2025, claiming he is living in “exile” due to fears of immediate political arrest upon returning to his homeland.
Reacting to the court’s decision on social media, Eduardo strongly rejected the ruling, calling it “baseless and senseless.” He argued that the conviction is a calculated move by the justices to strip him of his political rights and block him from running in future elections. He further claimed a severe lack of due process, stating he was never formally served with legal documents and only learned of the charges through international media coverage.
The case has already created significant diplomatic friction between Washington and Brasília. US President Donald Trump, who views the right-wing Bolsonaro as a close global ally, previously backed the family by imposing a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods last summer—a move harshly criticized by current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
While Washington initially placed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over his handling of the Bolsonaro cases, those measures have since been withdrawn. President Lula has maintained that while Brazil remains open to trade negotiations with the United States, any external targeting of its judicial officials remains an unacceptable breach of national sovereignty.
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