Brazilian Lawmakers to Decide Future of Impeachment Plotter

Brazil’s lower house of Congress has voted overwhelmingly to strip the legislative seat from its former speaker amid accusations of corruption and obstruction of justice.

Brazil’s former President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha speaks during the presentation of his defense in the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016.

Shortly after hearings began in December, Cunha launched the impeachment process against Rousseff, who was removed from office by the Senate on August 31 for breaking budgetary rules and decreeing public spending without Congressional approval.

Cunha has been accused by Brazilian prosecutors of receiving millions of dollars in bribes linked to the sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras. But the issue before the Chamber of Deputies was only whether he lied about having secret banking accounts in Switzerland.

When announcing his resignation earlier in the summer, Cunha, who has been widely compared to the character Frank Underwood in the TV series “House of Cards”, had said: “I will continue to defend my innocence and that I told the truth”.

He denies wrongdoing and has said her supporters are seeking revenge. Although resigning as speaker, he still hung on to the seat until Monday’s denouement.

Cunha’s fate has many politicians anxious because he has threatened to bring down others by revealing cases of corruption that could endanger members of the government of Brazil’s new President Michel Temer and derail his fiscal reform agenda.

Cunha has used a variety of stalling tactics to slow the proceedings that could lead to his ouster from Congress. The process dragged on for nearly a year, the longest in Brazilian history.

Her opponents also blamed her for the worst recession in decades.

But many of his onetime allies deserted him – including in his own PMDB party, the biggest in Brazil and also Temer’s party.

Thanks largely to Cunha’s leadership, the lower house voted heavily in favor a year ago of opening an impeachment trial against Rousseff, on charges that she illegally manipulated government accounts.

“This shows that Brazil will no longer tolerate a politician who turned Congress into a business counter for bribes and favours”, said lawmaker Rubens Bueno of the Popular Socialist Party.

He won prominence promoting a conservative social agenda that included a “Heterosexual Pride Day” and restrictions on abortion.

His defense Monday was sprinkled with religious references, as well as condemnation of Rousseff and her Workers’ Party (PT).

“This is all because I opened the impeachment proceedings”.

Thanks largely to Cunha’s leadership, the lower house voted heavily in favor past year of opening an impeachment trial against Rousseff, on charges that she illegally manipulated government accounts.