Air travel

CBP: Brazil's Moraes Used 'False Entry' Into US to Arrest Bolsonaro Ally

OCT 13 2025·Updated OCT 14 2025

Story

Above: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sept. 29, 2025. Image credit: Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Friday that a review of allegations that Brazilian national Filipe Martins entered the U.S. on Dec. 30, 2022 found that "an erroneous record" had been included in its official system, and that Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes used this "false entry" to imprison him.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
According to one of Martins' lawyers, the CBP claimed in April 2024 that his latest entry into the U.S. had been at New York's JFK Airport in September 2022, but two weeks later an entry for Dec. 30, 2022 was in its system with his name misspelled and the passport number lost in 2021.
The Wall Street Journal
Though Martins was on a provisional passenger list for the flight that took former President Jair Bolsonaro to Orlando, Fla., that date, his defense team and whistleblower Mauro Cid said he was not on the plane. Geolocation data shows that he remained in Brazil.
Folha de S. Paulo
Revista Oeste
The adviser to Bolsonaro was arrested in the southern state of Paraná in February 2024 as a flight risk due to his alleged travel to the U.S. He spent 183 days in prison — part of it in solitary confinement, he claimed in hearings — and has been under house arrest since.
Agência Brasil
The Wall Street Journal
Valor International
He is part of the so-called Nucleus 2 in the coup case, which includes those accused of having managerial roles in the alleged plot, amid allegations that he delivered a coup draft decree to Bolsonaro. Martins has been banned from using social media and giving interviews.
Agência Brasil
Folha de S. Paulo
Gazeta do Povo
His defense submitted written closing arguments to the Supreme Court on Saturday, after Moraes reversed his own decision to dismiss Martins' lawyer on the grounds that he had engaged in bad faith litigation and sought to delay the case.
CNN Brazil
Jovem Pan

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The truth has come out. Someone in the Biden CBP colluded with now-sanctioned Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes to justify a months-long imprisonment and efforts to coerce Martins into a plea deal in which he was supposed to link Bolsonaro with the fabricated coup plot. Filipe Martins is a brave man who has shown moral fiber in the face of severe abuse of power and human rights violations.

Eduardo Bolsonaro on X

Narrative B

The inaccurate record in CBP's official systems seems to be a procedural issue rather than fraud. Given that diplomatic delegations follow simplified processes, it's plausible that he was in the flight manifest but did not travel to the U.S. Furthermore, this false entry doesn't prove that Martins is innocent as the adviser to Bolsonaro was directly involved in the coup plot.

Estadão

Sam Pancher on X