Roberto Jefferson Monteiro Francisco (born 14 June 1953) is a Brazilian politician.

Personal life and education

He was born on 14 June 1953, in

Petrópolis Petrópolis (), also known as the Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 Brazilian census, Petrópolis mun ...

, in the state of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. He is the son of Neusa Dalva Monteiro Francisco and Roberto Francisco. Roberto Jefferson is married to Ana Lúcia Novaes. He finished his high school studies at Werneck School in Petrópolis and received a law degree in 1979 from the Estácio de Sá University in

Various parties

His political career began officially in 1971 when he joined the MDB (known as PMDB since 1979) party. Jefferson remained in MDB until 1979, when he went to the Progressive Party (PP). He left the PP in 1980 and he joined the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), which his grandfather helped to form in 1945.

Career with the PTB

Jefferson and his party were one of the key supporters of the right-wing

Fernando Collor de Mello Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello (; born 12 August 1949) is a Brazilian politician who served as the 32nd president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned in a failed attempt to stop his impeachment trial by the Brazilian Senate. Collor ...

government, and a key defender in Congress during the

influence peddling Influence peddling, also called traffic of influence or trading in influence, is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for ...

scandal which led to Collor's impeachment.Saiba mais sobre Roberto Jefferson, pivô da crise no governo, Lula
Folha Online. 13 June 2007. In 1993, he was cited in a congressional report which investigated

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

in the congressional budgeting committee as an individual who should be "investigated further". Ultimately his financial assets were deemed compatible with his declared income, though undeclared assets were found. In 1999, he became the leader of the PTB party in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. He continued as their leader until 2002. In February 2003, PTB elected him as its National President.

Corruption scandal and other controversies

In 2005, Jefferson became involved in a corruption scandal related to the

Correios The Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos (, abbr. ECT), also known as Correios (), is a state-owned company that has operated the national Mail, postal service of Brazil since the 17th century. The ECT created and manages the Brazilian ...

, the Brazilian

postal administration This is a list of postal entities by country. It includes: *The governmental authority responsible for postal matters. *The Regulatory agency, regulatory authority for the postal sector. Postal regulation may include the establishment of postal ...

. Facing a congressional inquiry related to his actions, Jefferson retaliated by exposing a cash-for-votes scheme, where he claimed congressmen were paid monthly sums in exchange for votes supporting president

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known Mononym, mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist and former metalworker who has served as the 39th president of Brazil since 2023. A mem ...

, in what became known as the

Mensalão scandal The Mensalão scandal (, ) was a major parliamentary alleged vote-buying scandal by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration that threatened to bring down his government in 2005. ''Mensalão'' is a neologism, an augmentative variant of the w ...

. The scandal included dozens of parliamentarians of the government's coalition and two government ministers, among others, resulting in the indictment of forty people by the Supreme Federal Tribunal, for their alleged role in one of the country's biggest corruption scandals in recent years. He was expelled from Congress on 14 September 2005, stemming from his actions in the Correios scandal. The expulsion barred him from being elected to any public office until 2015. In 2016 he was elected as leader of the PTB. In March 2021, Jefferson posted a post on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

accusing Jews of sacrificing children, which drew massive criticism from Jewish organisations and led to the removal of the post. The Brazilian Israelite Confederation confirmed it was preparing to file charges against Jefferson. On 13 August 2021, Jefferson was arrested on allegations of attacking democracy. Since 24 January 2022 Roberto Jefferson is under house arrest. On 23 October, Jefferson threw grenades and exchanged gunfire against agents of the

Federal Police of Brazil The Federal Police of Brazil () or Department of Federal Police () is a Federal government of Brazil, federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and One of the most know nationals Polices forces of the Executive Power of Brazil. Besides with Políc ...

coming to take him to prison after his house arrest was revoked after he insulted and threatened

Supreme Federal Court The Federal Supreme Court (, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the country's Constitutional Court. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings ...

minister Cármen Lúcia. Two officers were wounded in the incident.

References

External links

Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, Roberto 1953 births Living people People from Petrópolis Brazilian whistleblowers Brazilian Democratic Movement politicians Progressistas politicians Brazilian Labour Party (1981) politicians Conservatism in Brazil Democratic Renewal Party (Brazil) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Rio de Janeiro (state) Brazilian politicians convicted of corruption Far-right politics in Brazil Antisemitism in Brazil