Senator Flávio Bolsonaro departed Brazil for the United States after being defeated in the runoff presidential election, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday.
The departure follows a Supreme Court order that required Bolsonaro to hand over his passports because of alleged financial crimes, according to The Associated Press.
The State Department has not yet responded to The Hill's request for comment.
Bolsonaro, a right-wing candidate and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost the race to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, in an upset. After the result, he claimed the vote was fraudulent, echoing his father's claim after the 2022 defeat.
Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison term for attempting a post-election coup in 2022.
President Donald Trump weighed in on Monday, describing the election as "rigged." He did not endorse Flávio Bolsonaro but had backed his father in 2022.
"I didn't take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly," Trump said.
Trump and Lula have clashed before, notably after the U.S. president imposed 50 percent tariffs on Brazil, which Trump said partly responded to Jair Bolsonaro's prosecution. Lula threatened retaliation and wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times calling the tariffs politically motivated.
Trump's backing of the elder Bolsonaro and his opposition to the prosecution occurred amid Trump's own legal challenges linked to his actions after the 2020 election, where he repeatedly asserted the vote was stolen without evidence.
