US government would have allocated US$1 million to campaign against the STF, says The Guardian

The English magazine The Guardian published a report, this Wednesday (30), with the information that the United States (USA) government allocated US$ 1 million (around R$ 5.1 million) to promote a campaign against the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

“A contribution of US$ 1 million, entitled Combating Lawfare and Censorship in Brazil, would finance civil society groups that oppose what the project calls excessive judicial action and censorship on the part of the Supreme Court of Brazil”, says the magazine.

Resources are allocated by Congress to the Human Rights and Democracy Fund (HRDF). There is no information whether the money was transferred or just committed to projects abroad defined by the White House.

The English publication also recalled that Donald Trump's government imposed sanctions on STF minister Alexandre de Moraes last year, “after pressure from Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president”.

During the trial for an attempted coup d'état in Brazil, which sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison, the STF became a target of the Trump administration.

Washington has also criticized the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court on US digital platforms with the aim of inhibiting crimes committed in the digital environment. The Trump administration has been pressuring countries not to adopt any rules regarding bigtechs.

Agência Brasil sought out the STF's press office to comment on the foreign magazine's report, but did not receive a response at the time of writing this report.

The Guardian states that it had access to sources and documents from the US State Department, controlled by Secretary Marco Rúbio, which detail the allocation of US$176.9 million (around R$918 million) to 43 projects aimed at promoting the Trump administration's agenda in several countries.

“There was direct pressure from members of the Trump administration for these funds, reflecting interests that include [US vice-president] James David Vance’s (JD Vance) warnings about the collapse of traditional Western values ​​in Europe and [White House adviser] Stephen Miller’s campaign against immigration and in support of white minorities in countries like South Africa,” wrote journalists Andrew Roth and Joseph Gedeon.

For the United Kingdom, funding of US$5 million (around R$25.9 million) was planned to support a group that campaigns against online safety and anti-hate speech laws, including the Great Britain Online Safety Act (Ofcom), approved in 2023.

“Aimed to protect children from harmful content and overseen by Ofcom, the law includes age verification rules — in force since last year — that have been the target of constant criticism from the Trump administration, which classifies them as censorship,” says the magazine.

The biggest beneficiary of the Trump administration's donations would be the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which would have as one of its leaders the former White House domestic policy advisor in the Trump administration, Andrew Bremberg. This foundation would receive US$40 million (around R$207.6 million).

In response to The Guardian itself, the US State Department said that projects in Europe would seek to support “our allies in defending these rights and principles, as well as their civilizational self-reliance and sovereignty, against those who seek to undermine them.”