Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro seeks court approval for visit by Trump official | Donald Trump news

Bolsonaro’s lawyers have asked Trump adviser Darren Beatty to meet with the former president in Brasilia prison.

Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have asked the country’s Supreme Court to approve visits by Darren Beatty, a right-wing adviser to the administration of United States President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers are trying to arrange a meeting with Beatty during a regular visit next week on March 16 or 17, a court filing revealed on Tuesday.

“Extraordinary authority has been requested so that the visit will be held on the afternoon of March 16 or the morning or afternoon of March 17,” the filing states.

Since Bolsonaro does not speak English fluently, the petition requested that an interpreter be present for the meeting. The request was first reported by Reuters news agency.

Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for trying to overturn his defeat in Brazil’s 2022 presidential election.

Prosecutors accused the 70-year-old of being an incumbent in the race and conspiring with military officials to overthrow the democratic rule of law, among other charges.

He was convicted last September and has been in jail since November after his plea was rejected.

Tuesday’s request has raised eyebrows among Bolsonaro’s critics, who have accused the former president of trying to spin his prosecution of his relationship with Trump.

Trump has previously railed against Bolsonaro’s prosecution, calling it a political witch-hunt and comparing it to his own legal problems in the US.

In August, Trump raised tariffs on some Brazilian exports to 50 percent, citing Bolsonaro’s prosecution as a motive.

“This experiment must not take place. It is a witch hunt that must end immediately,” he wrote in a letter announcing the tariffs, which were the highest in the world at the time.

But Trump has since enjoyed improving relations with Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s rival in the 2022 race.

Brazil is set to elect a new president in October, and Bolsonaro remains a powerful figure among the country’s far-right.

His eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro, announced his candidacy in December – with his father’s support – and is slated to face Lula, who is seeking a fourth term.

A Datafolha poll in March suggested Flavio Bolsonaro was closing the gap with Lula, the front-runner in the race. Forty-six percent of respondents supported Lula and 43 percent supported the younger Bolsonaro.

Flavio Bolsonaro and his siblings continue to apply for their father’s release.

For example, Flavio suggested that the “price” of withdrawing his candidacy was his father’s freedom, although he later retracted the statement.

Meanwhile, his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro is facing trial on obstruction of justice charges, with prosecutors citing efforts to appeal to Trump for help in their father’s case.

Beatty, a representative of the Trump administration, has indicated that he sympathizes with the Bolsonaro family’s pleas.

An outspoken critic of the Brazilian government, Beatty has called Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes “the principal architect of the complex of censorship and exploitation directed against Bolsonaro.”

He served as an aide to Trump during his first term, but was fired in 2018 when reports surfaced that he had attended a white nationalist conference two years earlier.