Brazilian court bypasses lottery to assign Bolsonaro campaign finance probe

An investigation into alleged foreign financing of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro's defeated campaign has been assigned to Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino, a move critics say violates legal principles of impartial case assignment. The PT and Missão parties presented evidence suggesting foreign companies funded Bolsonaro's campaign and that ads ran on foreign social media profiles without identifying the payer, potentially breaching electoral law. Justice Dino accepted the petition within an unrelated mining case, bypassing the random draw required by court rules. The maneuver follows a resolution by court president Edson Fachin explicitly banning such practices, which require independent requests to undergo screening and a new judge draw. Critics argue the method exposes judicial use for political purposes.