Brazil's Bolsonaro drafted Argentina asylum request, police allege

By Ricardo Brito and Luciana Magalhaes

BRASILIA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro drafted a letter to Argentine President Javier Milei to request political asylum, federal police said on Wednesday, in a report accusing him of violating court orders tied to his Supreme Court trial.

The letter had been saved on Bolsonaro's cell phone in February 2024, two days after his passport was seized, according to police. It was unclear if it had been sent to Milei.

An Argentine government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Milei's office had not received a letter.

The document was part of the final police report formally accusing Bolsonaro and his lawmaker son Eduardo, of working to interfere with the former president's Supreme Court trial for allegedly plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election. Final arguments in the case will begin next month.

The police also found an audio from Bolsonaro asking Martin de Luca, a lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group DJT.O and video-sharing platform Rumble RUM.O to review a social media post that the ex-president was preparing last month with compliments toward Trump.

"The audio attributed to Jair Bolsonaro demonstrates that the former president acts in a subordinate manner to the interests of foreign agents," the police report said.

Bolsonaro was put under house arrest this month after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes found the former president failed to comply with restraining orders imposed on him for allegedly courting Trump's interference in the case.

In a Thursday statement, Bolsonaro's lawyers said they were surprised by the latest federal police accusations and that the former president had "never failed to comply with any previously imposed restraining orders."

De Luca said in a separate statement that he had been targeted for "standing up to Alexandre de Moraes" and that his correspondence was routine legal guidance.

"Offering feedback on a short public note or transmitting a public court filing is entirely ordinary. Yet these routine actions are now twisted into conspiracy theories," de Luca said.

In a post on X, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman who moved to the U.S. and has been advocating in Washington on behalf of his father, said his work in the U.S. was never aimed at interfering in any ongoing legal process in Brazil.

Trump has referred to Bolsonaro's trial as a "witch hunt" and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods, while the U.S. Treasury targeted Moraes with financial sanctions.

Rumble has been suspended in Brazil since February after a decision from Brazil's Supreme Court, which said the social media platform did not comply with court orders. The firm is suing Moraes before a U.S. court, together with Trump Media.

In a court order based on the police report, Moraes gave Bolsonaro's lawyers 48 hours to clarify his alleged failure to comply with the restraining orders and his flight risk.

Last year, The New York Times published security footage that showed Bolsonaro had spent two nights at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia. Moraes later closed an investigation into whether he sought asylum, citing lack of evidence.