Fachin considered that the alleged crimes were committed during the exercise of the mandate since presidents have immunity for crimes committed before that. The Supreme Court authorization comes after Joesley Batista, the CEO of Brazilian meat processing titan JBS, claimed on Wednesday that he was part of a scheme to buy the silence of disgraced federal deputy Eduardo Cunha. The scheme allegedly involved Brazilian president Michel Temer.
Batista also presented the Supreme Court and Brazilian newspaper O Globo with a recording that allegedly provided evidence of Temer encouraging one of his subordinates, former federal deputy Rodrigo Lourdes, to "resolve" a matter with JBS holding company J&F.
In a dramatic development, photographs revealing the bribe involving Michel Temer and Aécio Neves were released on Thursday, again, by O Globo. The photos show Loures delivering an amount of 500,000 reals ($159,400), which supposedly would represent the first part of a promised value of 480 million reals.
Temer has denied the allegations and is expected to make a public statement about the allegations later in the day.
