\n<\/p>\n
US freezes Judge Moraes\u2019s assets, citing role in arbitrary detentions, censorship, and Bolsonaro-related prosecutions.<\/em><\/p>\n The US Department of the Treasury has said it was imposing sanctions on Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and the ongoing trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro is accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 election defeat to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. US President Donald Trump has tied new tariffs on Brazil to what he called a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against his right-wing ally.<\/p>\n The announcement on Wednesday of sanctions against Moraes, who oversees Bolsonaro\u2019s case, follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s statement in June saying Washington was considering sanctioning the judge.<\/p>\n Moraes was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the US to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses.<\/p>\n \u201cAlexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,\u201d US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. \u201cDe Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions \u2013 including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision orders the freezing of any assets or property\u00a0Moraes may have in the US.<\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Moraes recently ordered Bolsonaro to wear an ankle bracelet and stop using social media over allegations that he courted the interference from Trump.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Washington escalated tensions with the government of Latin America\u2019s largest economy, imposing US visa restrictions on Moraes, his family and other unnamed court officials.<\/p>\n Brazilian President Lula denounced that move as \u201carbitrary\u201d and \u201cbaseless,\u201d and said foreign interference in the judiciary was \u201cunacceptable\u201d. The left-wing leader said in a statement that the US action violated fundamental principles of respect and sovereignty between nations.<\/p>\n The visa bans were a response to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to issue search warrants and restraining orders targeting\u00a0Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup to overturn the results of a 2022 election he lost.<\/p>\n In a letter in mid-July, when Trump announced a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian goods starting August 1, he opened the message with criticism of Bolsonaro\u2019s prosecution.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro\u00a0has denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government but has acknowledged taking part in meetings aimed at reversing the election\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US freezes Judge Moraes\u2019s assets, citing role in arbitrary detentions, censorship, and Bolsonaro-related prosecutions. The US Department of the Treasury has said it was imposing sanctions on Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and the ongoing trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is accused of masterminding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3159,2590,1844,160,964,675,150,6849,3604,159,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-bolsonaro","9":"tag-brazils","10":"tag-case","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-donald","13":"tag-judge","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-overseeing","16":"tag-sanctions","17":"tag-supreme","18":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}