RIO DE JANEIRO — Fighting to save his job amid a mushrooming corruption scandal, Brazilian President Michel Temer told the nation Saturday that an incriminating audio recording of him had been doctored.
“That clandestine recording was manipulated and doctored with (bad) intentions,” Temer said at a news conference in the capital of Brasilia.
Temer said he had filed a petition with the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s highest court, to suspend the corruption investigation into him until experts can analyze the audio that appears to show him endorse the payment of bribes to ex-House Speaker Eduardo Cunha for his silence.
It’s unlikely the court would do that, as it authorized the opening of the investigation into Temer in the first place and ordered it made public.
Temer noted that the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported that the 39-minute recording had been edited. The audio was first reported by the Globo newspaper on Wednesday.
Temer also questioned the motives of the man who made the recording, JBS meatpacking company executive Joesley Batista. He accused Batista of buying “large quantities of dollars to cause chaos on the exchange market” before giving the tape to prosecutors.
Temer’s claims about the audio and Batista couldn’t be immediately verified.
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