(Reuters) – A close aide to Jair Bolsonaro told police the former Brazilian president and senior military officers met last year to discuss a military intervention to overturn the result of the election after he lost, newspaper O Globo and news website UOL reported on Thursday.
Bolsonaro’s former aide, Mauro Cid, agreed this month to cooperate with Federal Police, who are investigating the former president for possible crimes, from embezzlement to inciting his supporters’ January riots in the capital Brasilia. Police have kept Cid’s testimony confidential as they investigate.
According to Thursday’s reports, which did not cite their sources, Cid allegedly told police that Bolsonaro sounded out commanders of the armed forces about a draft decree to overturn the election.
Lawyers for Cid and Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports. Federal Police said they do not comment on ongoing investigations.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes earlier this month authorized the cooperation deal between Cid and the police, and released him from jail, where he has been since May when he was arrested as part of an investigation into the suspected forgery of Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 vaccination cards.
Bolsonaro is accused of forging an election denial movement that culminated with the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings in Brasilia by thousands of his supporters. He has already been banned from seeking office until 2030 by Brazil’s federal electoral court.
(Reporting by Sao Paulo Newsroom; Editing by Brad Haynes and Mark Porter)
