On May 3, a rumor spread by Eduardo Bolsonaro—son of former President Jair Bolsonaro and the family’s primary liaison to the international far-right—was treated as news by Brazilian, U.S., and British-affiliated outlets in Brazil. These outlets amplified an unfounded claim that Trump administration officials were arriving in Brazil to sanction Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for allegedly violating U.S. free speech principles.

In a May 3 article in CNN Brasil, titled “Trump Administration Representative is Coming to Brazil to Discuss Sanctions Against Moraes” (translated from Portuguese), journalist Leandro Magalhães asserted that David Gamble, the Trump administration’s Acting Coordinator for Sanctions, would fly to Brasília on May 5 to “listen to right-wing parliamentarians and former President Jair Bolsonaro.”

CNN further speculated that the meetings would address “not only Justice Moraes’ actions but also those of other Brazilian authorities, such as Attorney General Paulo Gonet.”

The story first appeared in Metrópoles, a formerly progressive outlet now accused of ideological entryism, before spreading to mainstream platforms like Veja—Brazil’s most widely read news magazine. Veja has a 40-year history of smear campaigns against the Workers’ Party and was once branded “a toxic rag with an agenda that goes far beyond journalism” by New Yorker veteran Jon Lee Anderson.

Veja quoted Eduardo Bolsonaro—the ex-congressman who fled to the U.S. last month—who said, “when I say Alexandre de Moraes’ potato is heating up here in the U.S., you can be sure it’s really happening.”

While Eduardo’s potato metaphor might seem inappropriate, it fits his family’s years-long hybrid warfare against Brazil’s judiciary, including their false narrative of a “dictatorship of the toga”—a framing normalized by outlets like the New York Times. Yet no major outlet bothered to seek State Department confirmation before publishing.

The U.S. Embassy in Brasília debunked the rumors in a May 4 press release, stating:

“The U.S. Department of State will send a delegation to Brasília, led by David Gamble, Acting Head of the Sanctions Coordination Office. He will participate in bilateral meetings on transnational criminal organizations and discuss U.S. sanctions programs targeting terrorism and drug trafficking.”

Notably absent: Any mention of Moraes or Gonet.

Veja buried this detail three paragraphs deep in its vaguely titled piece, “Who Is Trump’s Sanctions Advisor and What Is He Doing in Brazil?” Journalist Bruno Caniato conceded:

“The embassy’s release does not cite Justice Alexandre de Moraes… contrary to Eduardo Bolsonaro’s claims.”

Rather than clarify what was now confirmed as a false narrative, BBC Brasil doubled down with “Trump Sends Sanctions Director to Brazil: Could the Target Be Moraes?”—illustrated with a slant-shot, unflattering photo of the Supreme Court Justice who has become the primary Brazilian target of the international far right. The article insinuated “chilly relations” between Trump and Lula’s administration, only acknowledging the embassy’s actual agenda in the penultimate paragraph—and even then, casting doubt by claiming that BBC “could not confirm meetings with relevant agencies.”

As of May 8, Gamble has not met with anyone to discuss sanctions against Brazilian officials.

Perhaps scrambling to save face, CNN and others inflated a courtesy visit by Ricardo Pita—a 5th-echelon State Department official (Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs)—to Jair Bolsonaro. The ex-president later clarified the conversation was general, focused on U.S. interests in Latin America, with no mention of Moraes.

A May 7th Reuters article published in the Guardian made the purpose of Gamble’s delegation visit clear. It was to convince Brazilian authorities to designate Brazil’s two largest drug trafficking organizations, the PCC and the Comando Vermelho, as terrorist groups, to help facilitate the Trump administration’s deportation program for Brazilians. Unlike CNN Brasil, Veja and BBC Brasil, Reuters’ journalist took the time to speak to someone in the Brazilian government, quoting Security Minister Mario Sarrubo explaining why Brazil rejected Gamble’s request.

“‘We don’t have terrorist organizations here, we have criminal organizations that have infiltrated society,’ said Sarrubo. But Brazilian law, he added, only considers organizations that violently clash with the government for religious or racial reasons to be terrorists."

As shown by Reuters, it’s not that hard for a journalist to get a quote from a government official. Why would CNN, Veja, and BBC Brasil skip fact-checking to amplify a rumor spread by a known liar like Eduardo Bolsonaro? The most logical conclusion aside from pure laziness is editorial bias in favor of the Bolsonaros.