A Brazilian Supreme Court Justice ordered House Speaker Eduardo Cunha to step down from his positions as House Speaker and federal deputy while he faces corruption charges.
Justice Teori Zavascki decided to suspend Cunha after Brazil’s Attorney General Rodrigo Janot requested the suspension in December, on the grounds that Cunha has been using his position to impede the investigation against him.
An opponent of President Dilma Rousseff, Cunha has been spearheading impeachment efforts against her. Brazil’s senate will vote next week on whether to begin those impeachment proceedings.
Cunha’s suspension is just the latest development in the ongoing Petrobras investigations scandal that has caused uproar in Brazil. Cunha has been accused of allegedly accepting bribes, but he has consistently denied criminal wrongdoing.
[WSJ]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- The Reinvention of J.D. Vance
- How to Survive Election Season Without Losing Your Mind
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
- Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
- The Many Lives of Jack Antonoff
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
Write to Julia Zorthian at julia.zorthian@time.com