Prosecutors from across Brazil want Bolsonaro investigated

Public prosecutors in all 27 Brazilian states on Tuesday requested that Prosecutor General Augusto Aras open an inquiry into President Jair Bolsonaro’s Monday presentation to foreign diplomats about the country’s voting system.

The president rehashed allegations about supposed vulnerabilities of Brazil’s electronic voting system — which have been consistently debunked by electoral authorities.

Brazil’s prosecutors of Citizen’s Rights wrote that the president, in his speech to the ambassadors, “explicitly attacked the Brazilian electoral system, uttering falsehoods against the structure of the Electoral Justice system and Brazilian democracy, in a clear disinformation campaign, sowing distrust in democratic institutions, as well as in the free press.”

The Superior Electoral Court on Monday posted a series of social media content fact-checking the president’s lies about the electoral system. The prosecutors’ petition draws heavily on these posts. It adds that “disinformation must be vehemently fought, as it creates parallel narratives that try to form opinions based on manipulation and emotion.”

The move is unlikely to bear any fruit, since Mr. Aras has been notoriously lenient with the president since being named by Mr. Bolsonaro for two two-year terms in 2019 and 2021.

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