As Washington weighs a fresh round of Magnitsky sanctions against members of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court, justice Flávio Dino asked on Tuesday (Sept 15) that the tribunal bring President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Brazil's foreign ministry into the matter. In an extraordinary session on the fallout of the Banco Master case, Dino suggested sending a statement on external pressures delivered by justice Cármen Lúcia to Lula and to foreign minister Mauro Vieira. According to Poder360, he described a new punitive measure by the government of US president Donald Trump as a "grave" threat to the court and to national sovereignty.
In the United States, the reapplication of the Magnitsky Act against justice Alexandre de Moraes is ready to be adopted, as is its extension to other members of the court, CNN Brasil has learned. The law allows the US Treasury to freeze assets and deny visas to foreigners accused of corruption or human rights violations. This time, the hesitation comes from the State Department itself. The assessment inside the Trump administration is that the sanctions of July 2025, combined with the tariff hikes Trump justified by citing the criminal trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, ended up boosting Lula's popularity. That diagnosis led the Treasury to suspend the sanctions against Moraes and prompted Trump to draw closer to the Brazilian president. Elections in Canada and Australia, where pressure from Washington ended up helping left-wing candidates, weigh against a rerun in a Brazilian election year.
A court in crisis, three weeks before the vote
For Brazil, Dino's request adds an international dimension to a crisis without precedent inside the court itself. Tuesday's session was examining a Federal Police report that points to 52 messages and meetings between banker Daniel Vorcaro, investigated as the leader of the largest fraud ever recorded against the national financial system, and Moraes, along with a R$ 130 million contract between Banco Master and the law firm of the justice's wife, according to G1. Before Dino spoke, Cármen Lúcia, the court's longest-serving justice, said the recent episodes had caused a "civic malaise" and apologized to the Brazilian people, with less than 20 days to go before the first round of the presidential election, in which Lula seeks reelection against senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president.
Dino justified the proposal by citing what he called "undue interference", and read newspaper headlines in session about the possibility of new US measures against Moraes. Addressing the court's president, Edson Fachin, he said:
"Given this situation, which amounts to undue interference, and given that Justice Cármen's statement was especially timely, brilliant, mature and assertive, I would suggest to Your Excellency that the notes of her statement be sent to the President of the Republic and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs."
A diplomatic channel never used
The justice said the court once discussed, without reaching consensus, a more direct route: a form of "paradiplomacy" in which Fachin would speak with the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts. "It is very controversial and we never reached any conclusion about it," he said. Dino also acknowledged the institutional limit of any such move: "the truth is that, at least in constitutional terms, it is the Executive branch that represents the Brazilian state," he said, proposing that official diplomacy be engaged through the Itamaraty, as Brazil's foreign ministry is known.
In Brasília, the presidential palace is monitoring the effect of the court crisis on relations with the United States, according to CNN Brasil. Aides to Lula say opposition figures have already taken information about the case involving Moraes and justice André Mendonça to the State Department, and the government does not rule out new American measures. Diplomatic interlocutors say a draft of new sanctions sits at the US Treasury, and that Moraes's name was reportedly reinserted after the justice issued a warrant against a journalist's source in the state of Maranhão. Tensions eased after a phone call between Lula and Trump, which allowed tariff negotiations to resume. Tuesday's judgment session, in turn, was adjourned, according to G1, after Dino requested time to review the case files, with no decision on how the Moraes and Mendonça cases will be tried, and the sending of Cármen Lúcia's statement remains, for now, only a suggestion. The final word on sanctions, in any case, stays in Washington: because the decision is political, the US Treasury awaits a recommendation from the State Department.