BRASILIA, Brazil �� Brazilian President Michel Temer Saturday urged the nation's Supreme Court to suspend a corruption investigation against him, saying evidence had been doctored.
"Today we are filing a petition with the Supreme Court to suspend the inquiry until the authenticity of the clandestine recording be definitively verified," Temer said in a nationally televised speech from the presidential palace.
Brazil's Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot says Temer helped obstruct the ongoing Carwash corruption investigation and may have engaged in passive corruption, according to court documents made available Friday. On Wednesday O Globo newspaper reported on some of the evidence used by Janot, which allegedly revealed that Temer approved hush money for Eduardo Cunha, the jailed former house speaker and mastermind behind last year's impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff.
The scandal prompted opposition parties and some coalition partners to call for Temer's resignation and to request an impeachment hearing.
"Brazil won't be brought off track," Temer said, citing recent economic achievements. "I will continue at the head of government."
