Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former federal congressman and son of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, met on Wednesday (16) with members of President Donald Trump's administration at the State Department in Washington and asked the United States to sanction three justices of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), the country's top tribunal: Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar Mendes and Flávio Dino. The request widens a campaign that until now had singled out Moraes. According to CNN Brasil, the meeting came one day after an STF session that was to review a Federal Police report on the justice in the so-called Caso Master and ended with no ruling at all.
Businessman Paulo Figueiredo, who joined Bolsonaro in the meeting, told CNN Brasil the two argued that Moraes should be put back on the sanctions list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury office that had announced the removal of the justice's designation in December 2025.
"Our position is that Moraes remains designated under the Global Magnitsky Act and there is no reason for him not to be reinstated on OFAC's SDN list [the list of designated and blocked persons]," Figueiredo said.
On the two other justices, he claimed there was a basis to include them: "There are enough elements to show that Flávio Dino and Gilmar Mendes are providing material support to a designated individual. Therefore, they should be designated too." The Global Magnitsky Act is a US law that allows sanctions over corruption and human rights abuses. Figueiredo said the meeting dealt mainly with Brazil's institutional crisis and the fight against organized crime, and he cited a document the Trump administration sent to Congress on Tuesday (15) in which the president said Brazil had failed to confront the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) and the Comando Vermelho, two of the country's largest criminal gangs. The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denies any failure or omission in confronting the groups, Gazeta do Povo reported.
The session behind the request
The Washington meeting followed Tuesday's session at the STF, convened by Chief Justice Edson Fachin to examine petition 16.662, on a Federal Police report linking Moraes to banker Daniel Vorcaro within the Caso Master. The full bench never reached the merits. The justices spent the day on a procedural motion filed by Mendes, at Dino's suggestion, to merge that case with the one set for September 23, petition 16.704, based on a Federal Police intelligence report suggesting irregularities in the handling of the case by its rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça. Dino then requested "vista", a time-out to study the case that suspends the vote, and the judgment stopped with no date to resume. According to BBC News Brasil, the session ended with no decision, and none of the justices named in the reports has been convicted: the documents still await review by the court.
During the session, Dino read aloud headlines about new sanctions and called the move an "environment of illegitimate pressure" by the US government to steer court decisions in Brazil. He suggested the court formally address President Lula and Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on the matter. Eduardo Bolsonaro, described by VEJA as the operator of the White House measures against STF justices, replied on X: "The international punishment of criminals does not offend national sovereignty, much less our Constitution." He had announced the step on Tuesday: "Everything is registered and ready to present in DC where, God willing, a new round of sanctions will begin."
What comes next
In the United States, the final word on new sanctions rests with the Treasury through OFAC, and no announcement had been made by the time of this report. Figueiredo said he expects measures soon: "I am optimistic that good Brazilians will like the news coming from the US in the coming weeks. And the criminals will not."
In Brazil, the STF is scheduled to meet on September 23 on petition 16.704, the report suggesting irregularities by rapporteur André Mendonça. The review of the report involving Moraes remains suspended by Dino's request, with no date to return to the docket.