The fight over the Master case has turned into a battle for control of the investigation inside Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court. Allies of Justice André Mendonça speak of a deliberate attempt to build a "smoke screen" around the case and of a cover-up operation to stall the inquiry. On the other side, the camp of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Justice Flávio Dino and the leadership of the Federal Police reads Mendonça's offensive as a move that could reach the police command, Moraes himself and the Prosecutor General, Paulo Gonet. According to a report by Andréia Sadi's blog at G1, published on Monday (7), figures on opposing sides agree that the crisis is far from over.

Sources close to Mendonça told G1 that the Federal Police report that became known on Monday (31) is only "a small sample" of what may still surface. In their reading, there was a deliberate attempt to build a smoke screen around the Master case and to slow down the investigations.

Allies of Moraes and Dino and members of the Federal Police command see Mendonça's offensive as part of a dispute that now reaches the force itself, Moraes and the Prosecutor General's office. Inside the police, G1 reports, there is a reading that Mendonça wants to investigate director-general Andrei Rodrigues, which would raise the temperature of a crisis that is no longer just a disagreement among justices. Moraes has also acted in writing: on Thursday (3), he sent the court's president a decision pointing to "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority and crime of responsibility in Mendonça's conduct, based on Federal Police intelligence reports, according to CNN Brasil.

How the case got here

• Tuesday, September 1: Mendonça, the justice in charge of the Banco Master inquiry, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report with messages and records of contacts between the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, and Moraes. The material suggested the businessman was seeking a channel to the justice as the investigation into Banco Master advanced. Mendonça said the new elements should be examined by the full court. The Prosecutor General's office questioned how the inquiry had been conducted and asked for the case to be closed.
• Thursday, September 3: the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, gave Moraes, Mendonça, Gonet and Rodrigues five days to provide clarifications. Hours later, Moraes sent Fachin the decision against Mendonça, covering the Compliance Zero operation, linked to Master, and Sem Desconto, which examines fraud at the INSS social security system. According to CNN Brasil, Moraes accused his colleague of interfering with investigations, taking part irregularly in plea bargain negotiations and steering inquiries for personal and political reasons.
• Friday, September 4: Fachin removed Moraes' decision from the fake news inquiry and gathered the complaints from both sides into a single case under the STF presidency, which is not under seal.

What Fachin wants to know, and what comes next

Fachin wants to establish, among other points, whether the Federal Police respected the rules of the Organic Law of the Judiciary when it came across information involving officials who can be tried only by the Supreme Court, whether private documents were accessed and whether information protected by judicial secrecy was disclosed, CNN Brasil reports. He also asked for details on a search ordered by Mendonça to identify people mentioned in the police material and on the steps taken by the Prosecutor General's office in overseeing police work. Fachin stressed that the requests only complete the record and carry no prior conclusion on the validity of Moraes' request, the regularity of the procedure or the merits of the accusations.

Justices heard by G1 point to a central legal question: under normal conditions, a Supreme Court investigation opens with a request from the Prosecutor General's office, or with its endorsement of a Federal Police initiative, because prosecutors hold the power to bring criminal charges. What exists now is a request to annul the material Mendonça declassified. Mendonça's interlocutors describe the referral of his report to the court's presidency as routine in nature, saying it happened only after the deadline for the information Fachin requested had expired. The next battle is to define what exactly can be taken to the full court, and under what conditions. Deadlines are already running: the Prosecutor General's office has five business days from Friday's (4) decision to file an opinion on the admissibility and regularity of the procedure adopted by Moraes and, if it deems it relevant, on the substance of the accusations. Mendonça then has another five business days to respond.

At the presidential palace, G1 reports, aides to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva believe the constant exposure of Moraes ends up helping the opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, because opponents link the justice directly to the president. Some in that group believe the effect could hurt Lula more than the damage from the "Lulinha" case. Justice Cristiano Zanin has tried to keep channels open with the different groups, the same report says. One source described the coming weeks as a "bloody September," with new reports, requests, rulings and revelations expected. Both sides agree on one point: what has surfaced so far does not end the crisis. It opens its next phase.