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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer on Tuesday made a passionate defense against a corruption charge leveled at him by the public prosecutor, calling it a “fiction” that was an attack on his government and the entire nation.

Temer, who was formally accused on Monday of accepting millions of dollars in bribes, said the charge against him will have a negative impact on Brazil’s economic recovery, possibly paralyzing efforts at reform.

The conservative leader said that executives of the world’s biggest meatpacker, JBS SA, who accused him in plea-bargain testimony, did so only to escape jail for their own crimes.