Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has changed his office and security routines after learning he was being monitored by the Federal Police, which produced at least six intelligence reports about him. According to a report by Poder360 on Tuesday (Sept 8, 2026), the justice now asks visitors to place their cellphones in a shielded box that blocks the devices' signals before private conversations, and keeps classical music playing on a sound system to hamper any eavesdropping.
According to Poder360, the reports were produced by an intelligence unit tied to the Federal Police's coordination of investigations before the higher courts and reached the force's top command between August 3 and 31. The documents carry no letterhead, signature, drafting date or identification of the analysts, and describe themselves as "working documents" with no probative value. They analyzed Mendonça's rulings in Operation Sem Desconto, which investigates fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security system, and Operation Compliance Zero, tied to the Banco Master financial scandal.
How the case became public
The crisis surfaced on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the seal on parts of the Banco Master investigation concerning the relationship between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. At 6:45 p.m. that day, then Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues formally sent the reports to Moraes, who heads the court's so-called Fake News inquiry into online disinformation. Moraes said he had received "news of the existence" of the material and ordered the force to deliver it to his office. On September 3, he used the reports to ask court president Edson Fachin to investigate his colleague and include him in that inquiry.
On Tuesday (8), Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Andrei Rodrigues and of Leandro Almada da Costa, head of the Federal Police's intelligence directorate. The ruling opened proceedings before the force's internal affairs office to determine who ordered and drafted the reports and whether others exist, and suspended the production of reports on the acts of judges, government attorneys and federal police officers.
What each side alleges
In his ruling, Mendonça said he had been subjected to "systematic monitoring" that also targeted the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, called the practice unlawful and said it could amount to "institutional arapongagem", a Brazilian term for illegal snooping. He compared the situation to George Orwell's novel 1984. According to news site g1, the justice noted that the police document itself rated its own claims as having "low aggregate confidence" while still authorizing "targeted monitoring and collection", and he called "frivolous and abject" the reports' reference to a supposed "common religious matrix" linking him to Messias.
"This is unlawful monitoring of a Justice of the country's Supreme Court, which in itself reveals the gravity of the situation," Mendonça wrote in the ruling.
In his request to Fachin, Moraes argued that the material indicates administrative improbity, abuse of authority, malfeasance in office and favoring of political groups in Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS cases, according to g1. Moraes has not spoken publicly about the crisis. Nothing has been proven so far: Mendonça faces only a request for an investigation pending a court decision, and the removed officers are subject to disciplinary proceedings, with no indictment.
On the political front, allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the order. Institutional Relations Minister José Guimarães called the measure "unfounded" and "an intrusion where it does not belong". Opposition leader Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ) told Folha de S.Paulo the case confirms that "Lula packed the Federal Police through Andrei to persecute opponents". Mendonça was appointed to the court by former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The next steps have deadlines. By September 14, Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Andrei Rodrigues may comment on the Federal Police report on Vorcaro's messages to Moraes. The prosecutor general's office must then assess the legality of the intelligence material, and Mendonça has until September 21 to provide information. A wing of the court aligned with Moraes wants any decision on investigating the two justices to wait until after this year's elections.