Trump Media Group Sues Brazilian Supreme Court Justice
President Trump’s media company sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice for allegedly censoring conservative voices on social media.
The unexpected lawsuit came hours after Brazilian Justice Moraes had received an indictment that would force him to decide whether to order the arrest of Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president and an ally of Trump. The justice is overseeing multiple criminal investigations into Bolsonaro.
The Trump Media & Technology Group — which is majority owned by Mr. Trump and runs his Truth Social site — sued the Brazilian justice, Alexandre de Moraes, in U.S. federal court in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday morning.
The companies accused Justice Moraes of censoring political discourse in the United States and infringing upon the First Amendment by ordering Rumble to remove the accounts of prominent supporters of Bolsonaro.
The New York Times reports:
The companies argued that those orders could apply to how those accounts appeared in the United States, breaking American law. Mr. Trump’s company has not been subject to Justice Moraes’s orders, but it argued in the lawsuit that it relied on Rumble’s technology and therefore could be harmed if Rumble’s operations were affected.
Justice Moraes has argued that his actions are necessary to protect Brazil from the anti-democratic acts of Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters. His spokeswoman said that Justice Moraes did not have immediate comment.
In 2023, a mob of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters raided Brazil’s Supreme Court.
Late last year, a Bolsonaro supporter tried to bomb the Supreme Court but instead killed only himself.
On Tuesday, new details emerged in the indictment of Mr. Bolsonaro showing that, according to Brazilian investigators, the former president and his allies had plotted to assassinate Justice Moraes as part of their bid to hold on to power.
Bolsonaro has denied that he tried to stage a coup or had any knowledge of a plot to kill Justice Moraes.
As part of investigations into attacks against Brazil’s democracy, Justice Moraes has ordered arrests of Mr. Bolsonaro’s allies and the confiscation of the former president’s passport, as well as the suspension of hundreds of social media accounts belonging to his supporters. Last year, Justice Moraes faced off against Elon Musk — and won — blocking Mr. Musk’s social network, X, in Brazil until the billionaire backed down in his refusal to comply with the judge’s orders to suspend accounts.
