The United States is reportedly revoking visas for six more Brazilian judicial officials while the US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the wife of a Supreme Court justice.
In an expansion of its sanctions targeting Brazil’s judiciary, the administration of US President Donald Trump on Monday imposed sanctions on Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
It also imposed sanctions on the Lex Instituto de Estudos Juridicos, a financial entity controlled by Barci de Moraes and other family members that the US government believes could serve as a vehicle to evade pre-existing sanctions, a Treasury Department notice said.
Shortly after those sanction notices were published, a White House official told the Reuters news agency that the US government is revoking the visas of Brazilian Solicitor General Jorge Messias and five other former and current Brazilian judicial officials.
Brazil’s Supreme Court said in a statement that it considered the sanctions against Barci de Moraes to be unfair. Barci de Moraes’s law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that other Brazilian officials could be sanctioned “if necessary”.
Brazilian Solicitor General Jorge Messias warned that the sanctions are incompatible with the longstanding, peaceful relationship between the two countries, but said he takes “without fear” the measure directed against him.
Bolsonaro verdict
Alexandre de Moraes presided over the criminal case of Brazil’s right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted this month of attempting a coup to stay in power after he lost the 2022 election to current leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
His lawyers said they will appeal the conviction, although jurists said their chances of success are remote.
Alexandre de Moraes himself was hit in July with sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the US to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses.
Taken as a whole, the latest sanctions represent a deepening of an ongoing diplomatic crisis between the Western Hemisphere’s two largest democracies.
Trump and his political allies have long dismissed the criminal case against Bolsonaro as a political witch-hunt. The US president, who was himself criminally indicted for trying to stay in power after his 2020 election loss to former US President Joe Biden, has frequently indicated that he sees a kindred spirit in the former Brazilian leader.
Alexandre de Moraes has stood firm on Brazil’s judicial independence after being hit with the US sanctions.
“Respect comes from independence. A subservient, cowardly judiciary, one that makes deals just to calm the country down, is not independent,” he said in August.
Earlier in July, the Trump administration yanked US visas held by the justice and several of his Supreme Court colleagues. The US also hit Brazil with a 50 percent tariff on most goods.