Brazil’s Temer demands suspension of corruption probe

BRASILIA: Brazilian President Michel Temer on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to suspend a probe into his alleged obstruction of justice, saying a central piece of evidence is flawed.

Temer said that an audio recording purporting to show him discussing payment of hush money to a jailed politician had been "doctored." The scandal has sparked multiple calls for Temer’s resignation.

Meanwhile, the escalating bribery scandal widened further on Friday with new plea-bargain details by executives from a meatpacking company that implicated more than 1,000 other politicians, including former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and secret recordings of a supreme court judge apparently plotting to quash the judicial investigation.

Temer has lurched from crisis to crisis since he took power last year after plotting the impeachment of his running mate Rousseff.

The charges against the president set the stage for a disruptive constitutional battle between the judiciary and the government, adding to tensions that have already sparked violent protests and calls from a former chief justice for people to take to the streets in remove a tainted president.

 The attorney general, Rodrigo Janot, said on Friday that Temer and Aécio Neves –a centre-right senator who was runner-up in the last presidential election – had attempted to disrupt the sprawling Lava Jato (Car Wash) inquiry into bribes and kickbacks from the country’s biggest companies to politicians.Based on plea-bargain testimonies and secret recordings made by the top executives of the meat-packing company JBS, the president is accused of condoning hush-money payoffs to the jailed former House speaker, Eduardo Cunha.

JBS is the largest meat processor in the world, thanks largely to generous government support. Its executives are accused of bribery and insider trading.

Janot also alleges Temer (who heads the Brazilian Democratic Movement party) and Aécio (the head of the Social Democratic Party of Brazil) tried to use laws and appointments to disrupt the investigation.