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Rousseff calls impeachment process "fraud"

Saturday, April 16, 2016 - 00:42

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, caught in the middle of a corruption probe and impeachment proceedings in Congress, issues a statement against impeachment. Rough Cut – subtitled (no reporter narration).

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ROUGH CUT - SUBTITLED (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff issued a statement against impeachment across social media late on Friday (April 15) as lawmakers prepared for another day of debate. In the statement, which was distributed to media by Rousseff's Workers' Party, Rousseff characterized the accusations against her as "fraud." "The complaint against me that is under analysis in the National Congress is a fraud - the biggest judicial and political fraud in the history of our country. Without this, impeachment wouldn't be voted upon. Brazil and democracy don't deserve this farce," she said. Lawmakers in the lower house of Brazil's Congress opened on Friday three days of debate on whether to impeach Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws. The government lost a last-ditch appeal on Thursday before the Supreme Court to halt the impeachment process, which could bring further instability or even chaos to Latin America's largest economy after 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers' Party. "I didn't commit a crime, no complaint of corruption or deviation of public funds exists against me. I never impeded the investigation, my name is not on any list nor am I suspected of any crime against the common good," she added. Rousseff is fighting to survive a political storm fueled by Brazil's worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s and a spiraling corruption scandal that has reached her inner circle. Polls show that roughly two-thirds of Brazilians support impeachment.

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