'Political Persecution': Bolsonaro Indicted Over Allegedly Falsifying COVID Vaccine Record
TownhallMar 29
Brazil Probes Bolsonaro for 2-Night Sleepover at Hungarian Embassy
story
Image copyright: Janos Kummer/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Brazil's Federal Police launched an investigation into Jair Bolsonaro on Monday in the wake of a report from the New York Times that he spent two nights at the Hungarian embassy in Brasília last month just days after having his passport seized.
Additionally, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to explain his extended embassy stay. If Brazilian authorities had sought to arrest him when he was inside a foreign embassy, he would have been legally off-limits to them.
The Spin
Left narrative
As legal challenges against him mount, it's anything but surprising that Bolsonaro would hide and seek asylum at the Hungarian embassy. He has long been close friends with his fellow far-right compatriot Orbán — a relationship that prompted Budapest to offer assistance to get him re-elected. And this wouldn't be unprecedented as Bolsonaro ran away to America to skip Lula's inauguration before.
Right narrative
Given that the Times broke this story shortly after CIA director William Burns traveled to Brazil, it's hard to believe that this political thriller isn't part of deliberate efforts by the Biden administration to damage the reputations of conservative champions Bolsonaro and Orbán. Even Brazilian justices who have persecuted the former president know that these latest allegations would be too much.
