The Trump administration on Monday reportedly escalated its standoff with Brazil by sanctioning the wife of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has become the central figure in a sweeping crackdown on political dissent and was instrumental in sentencing former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a close ally of President Trump, to nearly three decades in prison.
The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Viviane Barci de Moraes and the couple’s holding company, the Lex Institute, a move U.S. officials framed as a response to the justice’s “abuse of human rights” and targeting of political opponents.
“Alexandre de Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared. “Today’s action makes clear that Treasury will continue to target individuals who provide material support to de Moraes as he abuses human rights.”
The sanctions, issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, bar individuals in the United States from conducting transactions with Viviane de Moraes or her business interests.
Administration officials described the penalties as part of a broader campaign to hold accountable foreign actors accused of undermining democracy.
Justice de Moraes has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives in both Brazil and the United States for what they view as his consolidation of power through the judiciary.
Earlier this month, he joined a panel of justices who voted to sentence Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for what Brazilian courts described as an attempt at a “self-coup” after the former president lost the 2022 election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The ruling sparked outrage from Bolsonaro’s supporters and alarm among U.S. officials, who have cast de Moraes’s actions as a political vendetta. Shortly after the sentencing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned that the United States was preparing to “respond accordingly.”
“These sanctions build on a series of actions taken by the Trump Administration to hold Moraes accountable for abusing his authority, creating a censorship complex, blatantly targeting political opponents and committing serious human rights abuse,” Rubio said in a statement. “Those who protect and enable foreign malign actors like Moraes threaten U.S. interests and will also be held to account.”
The administration had already taken steps in recent months to isolate de Moraes and his allies. In July, the United States revoked visas for the justice and other members of Brazil’s high court.
That same month, President Trump signed an executive order raising tariffs on Brazil to 50 percent.
Officials have accused de Moraes of “weaponizing courts, authorizing arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressing freedom of expression” — charges that echo longstanding concerns about political freedoms under Lula’s government.
Brazil, for its part, has signaled little willingness to compromise on Bolsonaro’s fate. “There’s no space at all, not even one inch, to negotiate, when it comes to the prosecution of Bolsonaro,” Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said Tuesday in an interview with CNN. But he added that his government was “ready to negotiate the taxes, tariffs – that we can do, although they are illegal.”
The sanctions deepen a clash between Washington and Brasília that is increasingly defined not only by trade disputes but by fundamental questions about democracy, free expression and the power of courts to silence dissent.
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