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Bolsonaro charged with plotting 2022 coup, faces Supreme

Court

trial

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Bolsonaro seeks legislative changes to run for office in

2026

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Bolsonaro allies criticize Supreme Court, propose law

changes

amid Lula's low approval

By Manuela Andreoni, Luciana Magalhaes, Maria Carolina

Marcello

BRASILIA, Feb 19 - After Brazil's top prosecutor charged

former President Jair Bolsonaro with plotting a 2022 coup, the

ex-president's political future may hinge on a legislative blitz

to change laws governing how politicians are banned from running

for office.

A conviction by the Supreme Court, which is overseeing the case,

could land Bolsonaro in prison and create another obstacle for

his plans of running for president next year. An anti-corruption

law that the far-right firebrand voted for in 2010, as a

lawmaker, bars anyone convicted by an appeals court from running

for public office.

Bolsonaro was

charged on Tuesday evening

with leading a "criminal organization" aiming to overthrow

Brazil's 40-year-old democracy after he lost the 2022 election

to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom they planned to

poison.

Lawyers for Bolsonaro denied on Tuesday the he had supported

any movement attacking Brazil's democratic institutions. He has

called the case a political witch hunt conducted by biased

courts and investigators.

Aides close to Bolsonaro acknowledge in private that he

faces long odds to clear his name before the Supreme Court, so

the former president is focusing his efforts on rallying allies

in Congress to clear his path for a political comeback.

Bolsonaro huddled with allied senators on Tuesday about

plans to revise the so-called "clean record law" and other

potential obstacles to his 2026 candidacy. He was expected to

meet with lower house lawmakers on Wednesday.

"The clean record law today only serves one purpose, to

persecute right-wing politicians," Bolsonaro said in a video

posted to social media this month. "The ideal thing would be to

reverse the law so no one else is persecuted, and the person who

decides whether they will elect a candidate or not is you."

Few politicians have benefited more from the law than

Bolsonaro himself, who pushed for its passage as part of an

anti-corruption crusade that carried him from the back benches

of Congress to the presidential palace.

Lula, long one of Brazil's most popular politicians, was barred

from the 2018 elections by the clean-record law, clearing

Bolsonaro's path to win the race.

The leftist leader had been convicted that same year for his

alleged role in a sprawling bribery scheme involving his Workers

Party. The Supreme Court later annulled that conviction.

The new charges now before the top court are not the only

challenge to his plans for a political comeback.

In 2023, Brazil's federal electoral court (TSE) barred Bolsonaro

from public office until 2030 for abusing his political power in

two different instances during his 2022 presidential campaign,

including his attack on the legitimacy of the country's

electronic voting system.

His allies are also proposing changes to laws that could,

for example, reduce how long a politician can be blocked from

running for office. It is not clear if those bills can gain

traction in Congress, but some conservatives have been

emboldened by Lula's plunging popularity.

A February poll released by Datafolha revealed only 24% of

Brazilians approve of the Lula administration amid rising food

prices - the lowest-ever approval across his three presidential

terms.

Bolsonaro allies have also attacked the Supreme Court as

biased against his right-wing movement in an effort to stoke a

legislative backlash.

U.S. President Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology

Group ( DJT ) and video-sharing platform Rumble

sued

Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is

overseeing the Bolsonaro case, over accusations of illegal

censorship.