Brazil’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, on Thursday called on law enforcement to investigate reported efforts by the Trump administration to steer money to far-right causes in Brazil, days after a British newspaper reported that Washington planned a $1 million award to groups fighting the country’s Supreme Court.
Mr. Messias acted one day after The Guardian reported that the administration of President Trump planned to direct the money to right-wing civil society groups that oppose the Brazilian court. A separate account of the newspaper’s reporting said the administration had sought to redirect $175 million from the State Department’s human rights fund to various causes.
According to a report by Firstpost, the $1 million award is titled “Countering lawfare and censorship in Brazil” and would finance groups opposed to what Washington calls judicial overreach and censorship by the court.
Mr. Messias announced the request in a social media post. Foreign meddling in Brazilian institutions “cannot be tolerated,” he wrote, calling The Guardian’s report “an important alert for Brazilian sovereignty.”
The Supreme Court is the central foe of Brazil’s far right. Justice Alexandre de Moraes oversaw the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the movement’s leader, and the report of American money arriving on the side of the court’s opponents landed as Brazil moves toward a presidential election.
The attorney general’s office said it had filed a formal complaint seeking the investigation. It was not immediately clear which American agency or officials the inquiry would examine, or whether any of the money had yet been paid out.