Daily Times

Police in Brazil searched ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s home and seized his cell phone Wednesday, investigating allegations the far-right vaccine skeptic and his inner circle falsified Covid-19 vaccination certificates to dodge health restrictions. Bolsonaro, who faced widespread criticism as president for his unorthodox handling of the pandemic, denied the allegations, accusing the authorities of trying to fabricate a case against him. “There was no falsification on my part. None,” he told journalists outside his home in Brasilia after the early-morning raid. “I haven’t been vaccinated, period,” he said. “I’m surprised… by the search and seizure operation in an ex-president’s home, trying to fabricate a case.” The raid came after federal police said they had uncovered a scheme in which a top Bolsonaro aide, army colonel Mauro Cid, allegedly tapped a network of contacts in the health system and government to obtain fraudulent vaccination certificates for Bolsonaro, the president’s daughter, himself, his wife and daughters, and two other presidential aides. Police said in a brief to the Supreme Court that there was evidence Bolsonaro was “fully aware” of the fraudulent entries in the health ministry’s electronic vaccination records system, which they said aimed to enable his anti-vaccine inner circle to dodge international travel requirements and other pandemic restrictions.