Brazil’s judges called on to clean up political mess, again

Bloomberg

Flailing in yet another political crisis, Brazil is once more looking to its judges for salvation. This time, they could determine the fate of its president, Michel Temer.
On June 6, Brazil’s top electoral court, the TSE, is due to resume its judgement of the 2014 election campaign that could see Temer ousted from office. Aides say the president is determined to resist such an outcome. After playing a key role throughout last year’s impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s judiciary finds itself in the eye of the storm once more, caught between the opposing demands of the public and the government.
Allies of the Temer administration would consider an adverse court ruling as an “honorable exit” for a president sinking in a quagmire of corruption allegations, preferable to either
impeachment or trial by the Supreme Court. But the president himself is working to avoid defeat at the TSE, according to three aides—including two cabinet ministers—who were not authorized to speak on the record because of the delicate subject
matter.
The presidential press office declined to comment for this story. The TSE will judge whether the 2014 election campaign, won by Rousseff with Temer as her vice-president, benefited from illegal donations. If the court rules that it did, Temer may be stripped of the presidency. Even though he could appeal, prominent government allies have hinted that an unfavorable ruling could prompt them to jump ship.
“We think that the judgement of the TSE will be an important date,” said Tasso Jereissati, the leader of the PSDB to the O Globo newspaper on Thursday. “Let’s see what happens on the 6th.”