The editorials of Brazil's three leading newspapers have called for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court. O Estado de S. Paulo and Folha de S.Paulo made the call on Tuesday (Sept 1), and O Globo joined on Wednesday (Sept 2). The trigger was the release on Tuesday of a 218-page Federal Police report on the justice's relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, the bank at the center of the scandal.
According to CNN Brasil and Poder360, Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at the STF, unsealed the document on Tuesday. It gathers messages, contracts and records of meetings taken from Vorcaro's phone. Federal Police identified signs of at least six meetings between Vorcaro and Moraes between November 2024 and August 2025. In one message, the former banker asked whether he should leave Brazil two days before his arrest. He also asked Moraes to speak with the Federal Police director general, Andrei Rodrigues, and with Brazil's prosecutor general, Paulo Gonet.
What the editorials say
Estadão ran the editorial "Moraes tem de deixar o Supremo" (Moraes must leave the Supreme Court) on Sept 1. In the paper's view, "investigating solves only part of the crisis", given "the weight of a justice whose continued presence compromises the authority of the court itself". The text says the investigation still has to clarify whether Moraes tried to interfere with the probe or shared confidential information. On Thursday (Sept 3), the paper returned to the subject with "Um apelo ao que resta do Supremo" (An appeal to what remains of the Supreme), asking the justices to express, without fear, "their horror at the moral collapse that threatens the STF".
Folha published "A Moraes cabe a renúncia" (Resignation falls to Moraes) on Tuesday night. The paper described the messages, the meetings and the contracts between companies linked to Banco Master and the law office of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, as a "torrent of abominable situations". "There is no longer a place for Alexandre de Moraes at the STF. If the justice does not resign, it will fall to the Senate, through an impeachment trial", the paper wrote.
"As long as the justice remains in his seat, dishonor and discredit will pile up on the court. The most dignified and fastest step would be his resignation. It would spare the nation's institutions an unnecessary and drawn-out ordeal."
O Globo ran "Alexandre de Moraes precisa deixar o STF" (Alexandre de Moraes must leave the STF) on Wednesday. "It will be a disgrace if, once again, the STF tries to protect one of its members in the face of so much evidence", the paper wrote. According to CNN Brasil, O Globo also demanded that Chief Justice Edson Fachin urgently convene the full bench and rejected the request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) to void the Federal Police report. "If Moraes or Gonet insist on preventing their peers from judging the PGR's opinion, the wish to hide everything will be clear. It would amount to a confession of guilt, in which case the best thing would be to resign", the paper wrote.
What comes next
Fachin has described the revelations as a moment of "especial gravidade" (special gravity) and said he will announce "medidas cabíveis" (appropriate measures) in the coming days. The full court still has to weigh the PGR opinion, which asks that the inquiry led by Mendonça be voided. If the court stalls, the newspapers point to the Senate, which tries impeachment cases against Supreme Court justices. Moraes had not publicly addressed the messages as of Thursday morning, according to Poder360. The Federal Police report is not conclusive, and other devices seized in the operation have yet to be examined. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is 31 days away.