By Fernando Cardoso and Brendan O’Boyle
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, June 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Jaques Wagner, a close ally of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, stepped down as the government’s leader in the Senate on Wednesday, becoming another high-profile casualty of a widening corruption investigation and posing new risks for Lula ahead of October’s elections.
Brazilian authorities announced last week that Wagner was under investigation as part of the probe into allegations that Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master, used his money and influence to cultivate support among prominent politicians.
“I just had a great meeting with President Lula — a conversation among friends — and we decided, by mutual agreement, that I will step down from my leadership role in the Federal Senate,” Wagner said in a post on X.
He added that his priority was to prove his innocence and dedicate himself to Lula’s presidential reelection and to his own reelection to the Senate.
Wagner is the first member of Lula’s inner circle to be ensnared by the Banco Master investigation, which has touched figures across Brazil’s political spectrum and is creating a fresh political headache for the president as he seeks to defend his coalition during his bid for a fourth term in office.
Speculation had gripped Brasilia for days over whether Lula would ask Wagner, an ally and friend of over 40 years, to resign from the leadership post. Wagner is a former governor and a power broker from the northeastern state of Bahia, a bastion of support for Lula’s Workers Party and critical for October.
Brazilian police searched multiple properties linked to the senator last week as part of an investigation into whether Banco Master executives may have provided Wagner and his family with bribes, including an apartment and millions of reais, in exchange for influence.
Wagner, who has not been charged, has maintained his innocence and initially said he had no plans of stepping down, telling a TV interviewer last week that Lula called him and offered him his support.
The Master investigation has also ensnared Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, whom polls have positioned as Lula’s top opponent in the presidential race, and who acknowledged arranging funding from Vorcaro for a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. He has denied any wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Fernando Cardoso in Sao Paulo and Brendan O’Boyle in Brasilia; Editing by Fabiola Arámburo, Kylie Madry and Matthew Lewis)
