Laura Gamba
17 June 2026•Update: 17 June 2026
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison, finding him guilty of coercion and illegally seeking US government intervention in his father’s coup-related trial.
The unanimous ruling, handed down by a panel of justices, automatically strips the younger Bolsonaro of his political rights, disqualifying him from running for public office for eight years.
The conviction stems from an analysis of evidence and self-incriminating statements made by Eduardo Bolsonaro in videos and interviews. The court found that he traveled to the United States in early 2025 specifically to lobby the Trump administration to levy economic tariffs on Brazil and slap punitive sanctions on the very judges investigating his father.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the case, delivered a rebuke during the hearing regarding the limits of legislative duties.
"A federal lawmaker's job is not to lobby overseas against his own country," Moraes stated, emphasizing that the defendant's international campaign sought to unlawfully obstruct justice and interfere in ongoing domestic judicial proceedings.
Last year, the Trump administration briefly implemented aggressive coercive measures and heightened tariffs against Brazil in response to the prosecution of the Bolsonaro family, though those penalties were later rolled back.
Justice Moraes and his wife were among those targeted by US sanctions last July.
Eduardo Bolsonaro has been living in the US since Feb. 2025 and was not present in the Brasilia courtroom to hear the verdict. Under Brazilian sentencing guidelines, his prison term would be served in a semi-open facility. In addition to jail time, the high court ordered him to pay a fine of 100 minimum wages, totaling roughly 162,100 reais ($31,700).
His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is currently serving a 27-year prison term under house arrest for plotting a coup d'etat following his 2022 electoral defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Responding via a written statement, Eduardo Bolsonaro claimed he was not properly notified of the legal proceedings and alleged the trial was a partisan ploy designed strictly to block him from participating in Brazilian politics.
His defense team maintained that his diplomatic outreach in Washington did not constitute unlawful coercion or pose a real institutional threat.
The former congressman now risks immediate arrest if he returns to Brazil. He remains in the United States, where he has been actively campaigning from afar for his brother, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who is expected to challenge Lula in October’s presidential election.
