BRASILIA—Brazilian President Michel Temer, facing growing calls for his resignation over a corruption scandal, said he would not step down even if he was formally indicted by the Supreme Court.
“I will not resign. Oust me if you want, but if I stepped down, I would be admitting guilt,” Temer told Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s biggest newspaper, in an interview published on Monday.
Brazilians who have become inured to the massive, three-year corruption investigation were shocked last week by the disclosure of a recording that appeared to show Temer condoning the payment of hush money to a jailed lawmaker.
The Supreme Court has opened an investigation into the revelations that were part of plea bargain testimony by the billionaire owners of meatpacking giant JBS SA.
The court had been expected to decide this week whether to suspend the investigation at Temer’s request until it can be determined if the recording of his March conversation with JBS chairman Joesley Batista was doctored to implicate the leader.
But the Chief Justice Carmen Lucia ruled on Monday that the court would not take up the issue of the recording until Brazil’s federal police finish their examination of the tape and determine if it had been edited, possibly making it inadmissible as evidence in the investigation against Temer.
