The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Tuesday (8) gave Justice André Mendonça 72 hours to respond to a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the government's legal arm, to suspend the removal of Andrei Rodrigues as head of the Federal Police, the country's main federal investigative force. Rodrigues, the agency's director-general, and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa were preventively removed the same day in a ruling Mendonça issued on his own.
In the filing, signed by the head of the AGU, Jorge Messias, the office argues there is "grave harm to public and administrative order" and that the removal infringes on the president's exclusive constitutional power to appoint and dismiss Federal Police leadership. The AGU asked for an emergency injunction to immediately suspend the removals, to be confirmed on the merits later. In a statement, it said the choice and dismissal of the director-general belong solely to the head of the executive branch and that the only legal requirement for the job is that it be held by a member of the special rank of the federal police delegate career. According to G1, the statement warns of a concrete risk:
"The abrupt discontinuity in the agency's management compromises the functioning of judicial police activities and creates a risk of institutional disorganization."
How the case got here
Mendonça is the reporting justice for the Banco Master and INSS cases at the court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the removals were prompted by an internal Federal Police report that Justice Alexandre de Moraes used to request an investigation of Mendonça himself for abuse of authority, administrative misconduct and crimes of responsibility in how he runs those cases. In his ruling, Mendonça cited the production of unsigned intelligence reports that monitored his work and that of Messias. He ordered the immediate opening of criminal and administrative disciplinary proceedings at the Federal Police's internal affairs office and suspended any intelligence reports analyzing the work of judges. The removal is preventive: Rodrigues and Almada are under investigation, and no conviction exists.
At the court's Second Panel, a virtual vote to ratify the measure formed a 3-to-0 majority, with Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques, before the session was suspended when the most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, asked for more time. According to Folha, Mendes argued the ruling may have tilted the electoral race and said the full court should hear the case. Until the panel resumes, Mendonça's individual decision stands. Meanwhile, Federal Police department heads published a note of "full support" for Rodrigues and put their posts at the disposal of his substitute, William Marcel Murad, and the national association of federal criminal experts asked that the case be sent urgently to the full court, which now has ten justices.
The AGU filing arrives amid intense polarization inside the court, as G1 describes, and in the middle of this year's national election campaign. Rodrigues is one of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's closest allies and ran security for his 2022 campaign, Folha reports.
If used in full, the 72-hour window ends on Friday (11). Once Mendonça responds, Fachin must decide on the suspension request. Separately, the Second Panel still has to resume its vote, with no date set.