Brazil's anti-graft crusader struggles in Bolsonaro gov't
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Once a federal judge dreaded by Brazil's politicians, Justice Minister Sergio Moro is suffering at the hands of some of the very people he used to investigate.
Since Moro joined the far-right administration of President Jair Bolsonaro in January, his authority has been repeatedly eroded by politicians, including his boss, regardless of the justice minister's still high popularity on the streets.
Moro's latest loss came Tuesday night when Brazil's Congress trimmed his powers over a financial oversight body, the Council for Financial Activities Control. The body is an important tool that flags suspicious financial operations in Brazil's banking system.
In a setback for Bolsonaro, who has struggled in Congress himself, the Senate approved a measure that reversed the president's recent effort to move the council from the Economy Ministry to Moro's department as part of an anti-graft drive.
Despite his veto power over Congress' action, the president has said he won't use it, because it could create problems for other reshuffles his administration is trying to undertake.
Moro won widespread popularity by leading the "Car Wash" investigation that resulted in dozens of top businessmen and politicians being jailed for corruption. He gave that role up at the end of last year to take the justice post.
His troubles began as soon as he met with Bolsonaro in Rio de Janeiro shortly after October's elections. Although Moro's fans hailed him as a hero for taking the justice job in hopes of enacting the same kind of anti-corruption crusading as a Cabinet minister, detractors argued it amounted to a payoff for sentencing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a corruption and money laundering case.
Da Silva had led opinion polls on the presidential...