Reports: Brazil Graft Probe Won't Extend to Rousseff

A probe into a multibillion-dollar graft scandal at state oil giant Petrobras will not extend to President Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian media reported Thursday.

Prosecutor general Rodrigo Janot on Tuesday said he wants to open investigations into 54 people, including politicians who would normally enjoy parliamentary immunity.

Janot is set to ask the Supreme Court to remove that immunity so that he can question those lawmakers, reportedly including Senator Renan Calheiros, president of the Congress, and Eduardo Cunha, head of the chamber of deputies.

The daily O Globo, however, said Janot would not seek an investigation into either Rousseff or the man she beat in October's election, Aecio Neves.

According to Globo, which gave no source, the prosecutor considered that references to Rousseff and Neves by those questioned to date "were not sufficient to merit calls for (their) investigation."

Other newspapers carried similar reports.

Rousseff, a former energy minister, was chairman of the board of Petrobras from 2003 to 2010 before becoming president in 2011.

Brazil's biggest corruption scandal broke a year ago when a former director at Petrobras turned whistleblower in a bid to reach a plea bargain with investigators.

The former director, Paulo Roberto Costa, alleged that politicians and businessmen received some $3.8 billion in kickbacks from inflated Petrobras contracts over a period that runs from 2004 to 2012.