Brazil's Liberal Party (PL) played a recording of former President Jair Bolsonaro during a convention on Saturday, August 1, that launched the party's candidacies in the state of Santa Catarina. Flávio Bolsonaro, PL's candidate for the presidency, attended the event.
The material combined old audio and images of the former president with footage of him embracing other people in a mountain landscape. It has not yet been confirmed whether artificial intelligence was used in the recording.
The move comes amid questions from Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, after PL used an AI-produced video of Jair Bolsonaro at the July 25 convention that officially named Flávio as the party's presidential candidate.
Flávio Bolsonaro's speech
At Saturday's event, Flávio spoke right after the video was shown. With his brothers Carlos and Renan present, he complained that the family cannot communicate with the former president, and he recorded a video for social media so Jair Bolsonaro could see it later.
Flávio said another government like the current one, appointing four "Alexandres de Moraes" to the Supreme Court, would keep persecuting politics and the right, and might add more communists to the court, as he said the current president prides himself on having done recently. He said this would not be allowed because Brazil would return to normality and democracy, and Jair Bolsonaro would be freed.
Flávio also criticized the conduct of Supreme Court justices, said he would need lawmakers to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14, and pledged what he called the largest tax burden reduction in the country's history.
Defense denies prior knowledge
Jair Bolsonaro's defense told Moraes that the former president did not authorize the use of his image in the AI-produced video. During a livestream, Flávio said his father had no idea an AI video would be shown at the convention, adding that they had studied the legislation and found nothing wrong with it.
Moraes said the defense's clarifications would be crucial to determine whether there was flagrant disrespect of electoral legislation by Flávio Nantes Bolsonaro and PL.
Other investigations
In another recent decision, Moraes ordered Brazil's Electoral Prosecutor General's Office to evaluate a letter written by Bolsonaro and read aloud by Flávio, over suspected early campaign propaganda. Moraes said the letter's content carried semantic weight equivalent to an explicit request for votes, and he sent copies of the decision and the videos to the electoral prosecutor general.
The package of Supreme Court actions with electoral impact also includes the opening of an inquiry into whether Flávio committed slander against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Moraes led the Superior Electoral Court during the 2022 elections but left the court in June 2024. Though no longer on that court, he has kept influence over the electoral landscape through his role as rapporteur on cases that keep him a relevant actor in the political dispute.
