US targets Brazilian justice’s wife with sanctions; will revoke more visas
Six officials will see their visas revoked following the sentencing of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro.

By Reuters
Published On 22 Sep 202522 Sep 2025
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The United States is reportedly revoking visas for six more Brazilian judicial officials while the US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the wife of a Supreme Court justice.
In an expansion of its sanctions targeting Brazil’s judiciary, the administration of US President Donald Trump on Monday imposed sanctions on Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
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It also imposed sanctions on the Lex Instituto de Estudos Juridicos, a financial entity controlled by Barci de Moraes and other family members that the US government believes could serve as a vehicle to evade pre-existing sanctions, a Treasury Department notice said.
Shortly after those sanction notices were published, a White House official told the Reuters news agency that the government is revoking the visas of Brazilian Solicitor General Jorge Messias and five other former and current Brazilian judicial officials.
Brazil’s Supreme Court declined to comment. Barci de Moraes’s law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alexandre de Moraes presided over the criminal case of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted this month of attempting a coup to stay in power after he lost the 2022 election to current leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
His lawyers said they will appeal the conviction although jurists said their chances of success are remote.
Alexandre de Moraes himself was hit in July with sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the US to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses.
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Taken as a whole, the latest sanctions represent a deepening of an ongoing diplomatic crisis between the Western Hemisphere’s two largest democracies.
Trump and his political allies have long dismissed the criminal case against Bolsonaro as a political witch-hunt. The US president, who was himself criminally indicted for trying to stay in power after his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, has frequently indicated that he sees a kindred spirit in the former Brazilian leader.
Alexandre de Moraes has stood firm on Brazil’s judicial independence after being hit with the US sanctions.
“Respect comes from independence. A subservient, cowardly judiciary, one that makes deals just to calm the country down, is not independent,” he said in August.
Earlier in July, the Trump administration yanked US visas held by the justice and several of his Supreme Court colleagues. The US also hit Brazil with a 50 percent tariff on most goods.