Eduardo Cunha, the man dubbed Brazil’s most corrupt, and former speaker of the lower house has been stripped of his seat.
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The Chamber of Deputies voted 450 to 10 to oust Mr. Cunha for failing to disclose to a congressional panel that he had offshore financial assets.
Shortly after hearings began in December, Cunha launched the impeachment process against Rousseff, who was removed from office by the Senate on August 31 for breaking budgetary rules and decreeing public spending without Congressional approval.
Cunha has been accused by Brazilian prosecutors of receiving millions of dollars in bribes linked to the mammoth corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras. But the removal vote was based only on charges that he lied about having secret banking accounts in Switzerland.
The most powerful president of the lower chamber in decades, a man who thought of himself as a possible presidential candidate in 2018, Mr Cunha’s problems stem from his claim made before a parliamentary commission previous year that he did not have any bank accounts overseas.
His plan to impeach Rousseff, his biggest political opponent, was eventually successful.
Cunha has threatened to take other politicians down with him, a risk for members of new President Michel Temer’s government and his party.
“Don’t judge me based on what public opinion says”, he implored, reminding his colleagues that at least 160 of them also face judicial investigations.
Cunha has rejected the idea that he would incriminate others by signing a plea bargain deal with prosecutors. Swiss authorities have confirmed he has $1.4-million in accounts in that country, a charge that he continued to deny on Monday. “I am paying the price of having my mandate revoked because I allowed the impeachment process to go forward”, he said.
In May, he was suspended from his position as head of the lower house by the Brazilian Supreme Court over accusations of intimidating lawmakers and hampering investigations, one month after the lower chamber voted in favor of Rousseff’s impeachment.
If he had remained speaker, Cunha would have been next in line for the presidency if anything happened to Temer.
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