The cases against Jair Bolsonaro, from the coup plot to his 27-year sentence

Bolsonaro lost the October 2022 election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and did not concede. In December, his supporters set fire to vehicles and allegedly tried to invade federal police headquarters.^[10] Two days before Lula's inauguration, Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida.^[11] On January 8, 2023, thousands of his supporters breached and vandalized the presidential office building, Congress and the Supreme Court.^[12] Without singling out his backers, Bolsonaro said peaceful protest was part of democracy but that vandalism and the invasion of public buildings were "exceptions."^[12]

Bolsonaro stayed in Florida after the riots. Forty-six Democratic lawmakers in the United States urged President Joe Biden to cancel his visa, and Bolsonaro applied for a six-month visa to stay.^[13][14] In February he said he would return to Brazil within weeks.^[15]

The Supreme Court agreed to investigate whether he had inspired the mob,^[16] and in June 2023 the electoral court barred him from running for office until 2030, concluding that he had abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the electronic voting system.^[17] In October 2023, a congressional panel made up mostly of Lula's allies accused him of instigating the riots and recommended that he be charged with attempting a coup. Bolsonaro called the report biased.^[18]

Two top military leaders told police that he had presented them with a plan to remain in power after the 2022 election, and that they refused and warned they would arrest him if he tried it.^[19] In November 2024, police arrested five suspects accused of plotting to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice Alexandre de Moraes as part of the coup plan.^[20] Police indicted Bolsonaro and 36 others on charges of attempting a coup.^[21] They separately indicted him for allegedly falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination certificate and for embezzlement and money laundering over jewels he received from Saudi Arabia.^[22]

In July 2025, the US Treasury sanctioned Moraes, who was overseeing the case, as President Donald Trump prepared 50% tariffs on Brazil, in part over the prosecution.^[5] A majority of a five-justice panel found Bolsonaro guilty in September,^[1] and days later doctors said tests had found an early type of skin cancer.^[23] The panel unanimously rejected his appeal in November.^[2] He was arrested that month on a Supreme Court order, after a justice said he intended to escape,^[3] and he began serving his sentence days later.^[4]

In June 2026, the Supreme Court convicted his son Eduardo Bolsonaro of coercion for asking the US government to use tariffs and sanctions to secure lenience for his father, and sentenced him to four years and two months in prison.^[24]