Brazilian police found a draft of a proposed decree during a search at the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister, which reportedly seeks to interfere with the result of the October election in which Bolsonaro lost, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The proposed decree, which was created after Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, would establish an emergency “state of defense” for the national election authority, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which would allow for alteration of the election’s outcome, the sources said.
According to the sources, the document was discovered on Tuesday when police searched Anderson Torres’s home, who was appointed as the security chief for Brasilia after Lula took office on January 1st. The sources also reported that a Supreme Court justice ordered the arrest of Torres in connection with the security failures that allowed supporters of Bolsonaro to storm government buildings on Sunday and attempt to incite a military coup to oust Lula.
This development comes as a group of House Democrats have called on President Biden and his administration to revoke the diplomatic visa of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently in the United States.