PHILO PHOTO: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro watches as he wears his protective face mask during a ceremony launching a program to expand access to credit at the Planalto Palace in Brazil, Brazil, August 19, 2020. REUTERS / Adriano Machado
BRAZIL (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Sunday he wanted to punch a reporter in the face for questions about bank deposits made on the account of his wife, First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, by a former aid worker at one of his sons.
“I want to hit you in the face, OK?” the judge-president responded to the reporter of the newspaper O Globo, according to audio released by the daily.
Earlier this month, local media reported that the aide, Fabricio Queiroz, had deposited 72,000 reais in checks between 2011 and 2018.
Queiroz was an aide to now Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the president’s eldest son, when he was a state governor in Rio de Janeiro. The former aide has been arrested in an investigation into bank deposits made at the time amounting to 1.2 million reais ($ 213,500).
Questions about Queiroz have continued to plague the Bolsonaro family in an investigation that has been found to irritate the president and his promise not to tolerate corruption.
Report by Marcela Ayres and Anthony Boadle; Edited by Daniel Wallis
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