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REUTERS
BRASILIA
THE MAJORITY of judges on Brazil's top electoral court argued on Thursday to exclude testimony by construction executives on illegal campaign funding, suggesting they could throw out a case that has threatened to force President Michel Temer from office.
Exclusion of the plea bargain testimonies from Odebrecht SA executives by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal would strengthen Temer's chances of not being found guilty of receiving illegal funding when he ran as ex-president Dilma Rousseff's running mate in 2014.
A guilty ruling would annul the election result and unseat Temer, though he could appeal and remain in office until a final decision that could take months. That would deepen uncertainty over the fate of his economic reform agenda aimed at plugging a gaping budget deficit and pulling Brazil out of its worst ever recession.
Justice Gilmar Mendes, who presides over the court known as the TSE, said any ruling would have to take into account the country's stability and not compel Temer to step down for an unwarranted minor reason. Mendes, as well as justices Napole'e3o Nunes Maia, Admar Gonzaga and Tarc'edsio Vieira, argued against allowing the Odebrecht testimony.
In recent plea-bargain testimony, Odebrecht executives told prosecutors they funneled millions of dollars under the table to the 2014 campaign of Rousseff and Temer in return for government contracts.
The Temer and Rousseff defense teams requested the testimony be scrapped by the TSE, holding that it went beyond the scope of an original complaint filed by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party after it lost the 2014 election.
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09/06/2017
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