Brazil's lower house begins analysis of charges against President Temer

BRASILIA - Brazil's Chamber of Deputies began analyzing the charges for passive corruption filed against President Michel Temer on Thursday.

Rodrigo Maia, President of the Chamber, will be responsible for establishing the timeline of the case in the Chamber.

The 60-page document was read out to the Chamber by its second secretary, but only 10 of 513 deputies were present in the room.

Following the reading, the text was sent to Temer, along with a notification to prepare his defense. A preliminary analysis will then be carried out by the Chamber's Constitution and Justice Commission.

Once Temer presents his defense, the Commission will debate the case five times and a report will be present to the Chamber, recommending the charges to be either continued or rejected.

A full Chamber vote will then be called, with a two-third majority, or 342 out of 513 votes, needed to open a formal case against Temer.

If Temer is formally charged, he would have to step down from office.

Temer has vowed to fight the charges and continued to state his innocence. To better fight the case, he announced on Thursday to cancel a trip to Germany to attend the G20 summit.

On Monday night, Brazil's prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot filed the charges, accusing Temer of having been bribed by executives from meatpacking group JBS in exchange for favorable decisions by the government.