Brasilia — Politicians suspected of profiting from Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal are drafting legislation aimed at letting themselves off the hook, the country’s chief prosecutor said on Friday. Rodrigo Janot said he feared Brazil might repeat the errors seen in Italy’s battle against corruption two decades ago, effectively allowing politicians to take bribes with immunity. Italy’s "Operation Clean Hands" exposed a web of kickbacks in state contracts in the 1990s but was followed by multiple laws protecting politicians from prosecution and jail. "When an investigation of this size touches the centres of political and economic power, there is obviously a reaction of self-preservation," Janot told reporters at a news briefing. Brazil’s investigation into graft at state-run oil company Petrobras, which began more than two years ago, has led to charges against nearly 250 people and has seen the arrest, trial and guilty verdicts of some of the country’s most powerful businessmen an...
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