SNEAKY

Bolsonaro Wanted to Breach Brazil’s Voting System, Hacker Testifies

Brazil’s former president allegedly promised the hacker a pardon if he were caught.

A hacker testified on Thursday that Brazil’s former far-right nationalist President Jair Bolsonaro asked him if it was possible to breach the country’s voting system to bolster Bolsonaro’s claims of fraud—even promising to pardon him if he was caught. The hacker, Walter Delgatti Neto, additionally said Bolsonaro wanted him to take the blame for allegedly wiretapping the head justice of Brazil’s top electoral court. Delgatti Neto’s testimony came before a congressional committee investigating Jan. 8 riots, in which Bolso-minions stormed the nation’s major governmental buildings in protest of his defeat. Bolsonaro failed to concede following his narrow loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, spewing conspiracies of election fraud and faulty voting systems. Delgatti Neto, a computer programmer, alleged that Bolsonaro asked him if he could hack a single ballot and told him to get help to do so from the Ministry of Defense. A Bolsonaro spokesperson did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.