And they say our politics are dirty...
American government may be an unmitigated mess right now, but at least we don't have Senators hiding cash between their butt cheeks—that we know of, anyway.
But that's precisely what happened in Brazil this week when the home of Senator Chico Rodrigues was raided on suspicion of misusing pandemic response funds.
When searched, police found that the Senator had money stashed in the ol' backdoor billfold, if you will.
Rodrigues represents the Brazilian state of Roraima and is also a high-level appointee in the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected on a campaign of rooting out corruption in the Brazilian government.
Brazilian federal police performed multiple raids as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of pandemic response funds directed to the secretary of health in Rodrigues' state of Roraima. He denied any wrongdoing, and claimed in a statement that he had never been involved in any corruption throughout his 30 years in public service.
Of course, hiding cash betwixt your buttocks isn't exactly the action of an innocent person, but perhaps they do things differently in Brazil. Who are we to judge?
In a statement, President Bolsonaro lauded the Rodrigues incident as evidence he was fulfilling his promise of fighting corruption, even though no corruption exists... or something...
"There is no corruption in my government and we fight corruption, whoever it is."
Naturally, this bizarre story had people on Twitter making Rodrigues the butt of the joke.
Despite his tough-on-corruption stance, Bolsonaro's administration has been rife with crooked characters and allegations.
His former justice minister resigned earlier this year after claiming Bolsonaro tried to interfere with a police investigation. Bolsonaro's son is currently under investigation for fraud in Rio de Janeiro.
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