Lula’s re-election campaign has asked Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to add the US decision to suspend consular services at its Brasília embassy to a case alleging foreign interference in the presidential race. The campaign’s argument is that the timing and scale of the move warrant electoral scrutiny, rather than being treated solely as a routine diplomatic security decision.

A report framed from the left describes Lula as calling the closure an “anomalous gesture” and linking it to Donald Trump’s intervention in the election.¹ In the formal filing, Lula’s coalition said an act of that magnitude by a foreign state during the election period “projects instability over the electoral environment.”²

The US government, by contrast, said the suspension was prompted by “security concerns,” but did not disclose the specific reasons. That leaves a central gap between the two accounts: Washington has presented a security rationale, while Lula’s lawyers say the decision belongs in a broader assessment of political pressure surrounding the vote.²

The TSE request follows a separate effort by Lula’s campaign to revoke the candidacy registration of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the Liberal Party presidential candidate. The electoral action alleges abuse of economic, political and media power, claiming that Bolsonaro acted with the White House to influence the contest. A ruling against him could invalidate his candidacy or, if he won, remove him from office and bar him from elections for eight years.²

Lula’s Workers’ Party has also asked the Supreme Federal Court to investigate what it calls US interference, citing Trump-era tariffs, sanctions imposed on Justice Alexandre de Moraes under the Magnitsky Act, and the involvement of Brazilian business figures close to US politicians in Bolsonaro’s campaign. Justice Flávio Dino had not acted on that request, according to the report.²