A close vote in Brazil's Superior Electoral Court finds Temer not guilty of receiving illegal campaign funds during 2014 presidential election
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Brazilian President Michel Temer has been acquitted of accepting illegal donations during the campaign he ran with impeached leader Dilma Rousseff.
The Superior Electoral court voted four to three in Temer’s favour, allowing the President to remain in office.
The accusations revolved around Dilma Rousseff’s successful presidential bid in 2014, in which Temer was her running mate, and alleged illegal donations that supposedly invalidated the win.
Judge Herman Benjamin, the rapporteur of the case, voted for Temer’s conviction, saying both he and Rousseff were guilty of abuse of economic and political power.
However, with four of the seven judges voting against, the charges against the president were dropped.
If a guilty verdict had been reached, Temer would have been suspended from office, and Rousseff would have lost her political rights.
Rousseff was impeached last year for illegally moving funds between government budgets.
Then last month a recording emerged of Temer appearing to encourage a hush money payment to Eduardo Cunha, who led the impeachment process against Rousseff.
Regardless of calls for him to step aside, and his approval ratings dropping to the single digits, Temer has refused to go despite being abandoned by many of his allies and the Brazilian media.