Any shred of legitimacy the Brazilian coup government clung to has dried up after leaked audio recordings revealed that the entire premise for ousting the democratically-elected president was to stop a major investigation into the country's conservative political elites.

Planning Minister Romero Juca stepped down after only eight days on the job after he was caught apparently conspiring to obstruct the country's biggest-ever corruption investigation into the state-owned oil company Petrobras.  Juca is a close ally of interim President Michel Temer, who was appointed to the role after twice-elected President Dilma Rousseff was suspended for six months pending impeachment for non-criminal accounting irregularities.

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on Monday published the recordings of Mr. Juca speaking with Sergio Machado, a former senator who until recently led another state oil company, Transpetro.  The two talk about being targeted by prosecutors in the Petrobras scandal, and Juca declares:  "We have to stop this shit!" he continued, "We have to change the government to be able to stop this bleeding."

Machado replies, "The easiest solution would be to put in Michel (Temer)."

Juca later is heard discussing talking about how he raised the subject of the upcoming coup with the military and the supreme court, which told him that the Petrobras investigation wouldn't stop as long as Dilma Rousseff was president.  A few weeks after that, she was suspended.

Juca claims his words are being taken out of context.  Machado is already negotiating a plea bargain with prosecutors.

This is the latest blow to the coup government of Michel Temer, who after stealing power immediately appointed an all-white male cabinet to govern a country where more than half of the population is multi-racial or otherwise non-white.  This dubious group includes seven ministers implicated in the Petrobras investigation into kickbacks and money laundering.