Brazil AG probes US funding of far-right groups — SkimNews
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- Brazil's Attorney General Jorge Messias requested a law enforcement probe into alleged US interference after The Guardian reported the Trump administration planned to award $1m to right-wing civil groups opposing Brazil's Supreme Court.
- The Guardian reported that the Trump administration sought to redirect $175m from the State Department's human rights fund to far-right causes globally — including groups backing white Afrikaners in South Africa and Brazilian efforts to counter what the US called "lawfare and censorship."
- Messias declared that foreign meddling "cannot be tolerated" and called the report "an important alert for Brazilian sovereignty," noting the information was "especially serious" ahead of the country's electoral process.
- The probe comes weeks before the October 4 first-round presidential vote, where leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro are virtually tied in recent polls.
- Flavio Bolsonaro met Trump at the White House in May, has promised closer US ties, and is the frontrunner on Brazil's right; his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison in September 2025 for his role in an alleged coup plot.
- Trump previously imposed 50-percent tariffs on certain Brazilian goods over Bolsonaro's prosecution, later removed them, revoked visas of Brazilian judicial officials involved in the case, and levied short-lived sanctions against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over what he called an "unlawful witch hunt."
Why it matters: The alleged $1 million earmarked for Brazil is a sliver of the $175 million global figure The Guardian reported, meaning Brazil's investigation has the potential to surface US funding of ideological allies far beyond its borders. It also escalates a years-long feud between Trump and Brazil's judiciary — tariffs, visa revocations, sanctions on Justice Moraes — right before an October 4 election where Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro are essentially tied, leaving no margin for outside spending.
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