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A Brazilian court has officially found former President Jair Bolsonaro guilty of orchestrating a failed coup attempt to overturn the 2022 election.

Getting into it: The Supreme Federal Court sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison after convicting him of five criminal charges, including leading a criminal organization, attempting to violently abolish the democratic state, inciting insurrection, damaging public property, and plotting to assassinate political opponents. Prosecutors alleged Bolsonaro and a core group of loyalists conspired for over a year to undermine the electoral process and remain in power after losing to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Alongside Bolsonaro, seven co-defendants (including his former defense minister Walter Braga Netto, ex-justice minister Anderson Torres, and other high-ranking military and police officials) were convicted for their roles in the attempted coup.

The charges stem from an elaborate plan that prosecutors say involved declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the Supreme Court, installing a military regime, and assassinating key figures including President-elect Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to federal investigators, Bolsonaro had “full knowledge” of the plan and took steps to activate it by pressuring military officials, inciting unrest among his supporters, and spreading disinformation about electoral fraud. Evidence included printed coup drafts found in the presidential palace, messages and testimonies from close aides, and Bolsonaro’s public statements casting doubt on the election’s legitimacy. This ultimately led to the January 8, 2023, storming of government buildings in Brasília by thousands of his supporters.

Bolsonaro has denied all wrongdoing, claiming the trial was a politically motivated witch hunt designed to dismantle his movement. He argued that his post-election actions were lawful attempts to investigate electoral irregularities, not a coordinated plot to seize power. Bolsonaro’s sole supporter on the five-judge panel, Justice Luiz Fux, dissented, questioning the sufficiency of the evidence and comparing the case to the O.J. Simpson trial, asserting that political actors were being criminalized without direct proof of intent.

The verdict has drawn international backlash, particularly from President Donald Trump, a close Bolsonaro ally, who condemned the trial as a “terrible thing” and part of a global effort to silence conservatives. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US would “respond accordingly to this witch hunt,” calling Bolsonaro’s imprisonment an abuse of human rights and accusing Brazil’s judiciary of weaponizing the law for political ends.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry rejected the US statement, warning that Brazilian democracy “will not be intimidated” by threats or economic coercion.