Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff

The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th President of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Rousseff, more than 12 months into her second four-year term, was charged with criminal administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget in violation of article 85, items V and VI of the Brazilian Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Law (), article 36.

The petition also accused Rousseff of criminal responsibility for failing to act on the scandal at Brazilian national petroleum company Petrobras, allegations uncovered by the Operation Car Wash investigation, and failing to distance herself from the suspects. Rousseff was president of the Petrobras board of directors during the time frame covered by the investigation, and approved Petrobras' controversial acquisition of Pasadena Refining System. However, the Petrobras charges were not included in the impeachment because Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot successfully argued that a sitting president cannot be investigated while in office for acts prior to election.

On 31 August 2016, the Senate removed President Rousseff from office by a 61–20 vote, finding her guilty of breaking Brazil's budget laws. Vice-president Michel Temer replaced her, becoming the 37th President of Brazil. Temer is accused by an Odebrecht executive of soliciting campaign donations in 2014 for his party. He faces trial along with Rousseff in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in a complaint filed by Aécio Neves, the candidate narrowly defeated by Rousseff in the 2014 presidential runoff, over irregularities in their campaign funds - Rousseff shared the PT-PMDB coalition ticket with Temer and the court ruled it would consider their campaign finances at the same time.

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