Justice Alexandre de Moraes is working with allied justices on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) to postpone the session scheduled for Tuesday, September 15. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the group will only accept that the full bench meets if the agenda also includes the case against Justice André Mendonça.
Court President Edson Fachin called the session to discuss a Federal Police report that identified Moraes as one of the interlocutors of Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker behind Banco Master, the financial group at the center of a sprawling corruption investigation. The report became public on September 1, after Mendonça, the justice overseeing the Banco Master case, lifted its secrecy. It contains 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to Moraes; the justice's replies do not appear in the material. According to Folha, colleagues advised Fachin to put both issues on the agenda together, arguing they cannot be separated.
The pressure became formal on Friday (11). Moraes sent a written request to Fachin asking that the two pending petitions be judged together, G1 reported. One of them gathers reports pointing to suspected breach of impartiality, administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority by Mendonça in running the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero". The court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, went further: he asked for the September 15 session to be postponed, for the case against Mendonça to be added to the agenda, and for Fachin to take over all related proceedings. "The moment demands, above all, unity of direction, clarity on the object of the judgment and strict observance of the procedural guarantees of everyone involved," Gilmar wrote.
On the risk of splitting the cases, he wrote:
"The fragmentation of proceedings built on common factual bases, beyond making it harder for the bench to understand the overall picture, can produce exactly what the rules on joinder seek to avoid: irreconcilable decisions and procedural disorder."
A court split down the middle
According to Folha, Moraes currently has the support of Justices Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino. Mendonça is aligned with Luiz Fux, Kassio Nunes Marques and Fachin himself. Since Dias Toffoli is not expected to vote, Justice Cármen Lúcia is likely to hold the deciding vote.
The calendar problem
Fachin has told colleagues in private conversations that the deadline he gave Mendonça to explain his conduct will not have run out by Tuesday. It expires on September 21. Against that backdrop, Folha reports, justices have warned that a request for more review time, known in Brazil as a pedido de vista, could halt the judgment. The device allows a justice up to 90 days to study the case files and, for Moraes's group, would buy time and get around the obstacle raised by Fachin.
The full bench remains summoned for Tuesday, September 15. Until then, Fachin must decide whether to keep the agenda, postpone the session or merge the two cases. Mendonça's deadline runs to September 21.