Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the United States may impose sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has clashed with former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro and Elon Musk.
Asked at a congressional hearing if President Donald Trump’s administration was considering sanctions on Moraes, Rubio said: “That is under review now, and it’s a great possibility that will happen.”
Moraes has been at odds with Musk, the world’s richest person and close advisor of Trump, by temporarily blocking his X social media platform until it complied with the judge’s orders to suspend accounts.
Moraes said he was acting to protect democracy by targeting pervasive disinformation in Brazil, where Bolsonaro’s supporters in 2023 stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court as they claimed the election was stolen from him.
The attack had striking similarities to the January 2021 riot at the US Capitol by supporters of Trump, a close ally of Bolsonaro.
Moraes more recently ordered a suspension of Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with conservative and far-right voices, over its refusal to block the account of a user based in the United States who was wanted for spreading disinformation.
The State Department under Rubio criticized the judge’s order as violating democratic values, leading Brazil to accuse the United States of politicizing a court decision.
Rubio was asked if the United States could target Moraes under the Magnitsky Act, which freezes US-based assets and bars travel to the country for foreign officials accused of human rights abuses or corruption.
The 2012 law is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who died in prison after exposing corruption.
