The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, took over on Saturday (12) the reporting role in the case on the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Fachin also ordered that the files of the investigations into the INSS pension fraud and Banco Master be sent to the court's presidency, according to news outlet G1.

The order removes Justice André Mendonça from the case. In Brazil's top court, the reporting justice reviews the files and drafts the opinion that guides the vote. With the change, the two investigations are on hold until a new order from Fachin. He may take over the reporting role himself once the material reaches the presidency, or he may leave the decision to the full bench of eleven justices.

Fachin justified the move by citing the possibility that the ruling could trigger a conflict-of-interest rule known as impedimento, under which a judge is barred from hearing a case, as the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported. In his order, he wrote:

"Considering the possibility that the outcome of the deliberation in PET 16.662 may require the application of Article 144, IV, of the Civil Procedure Code, I order the Judicial Secretariat, on the grounds of Article 13, XV, of the Supreme Federal Tribunal's internal rules, to transfer the reporting role in PET 16.662 to the presidency of the Supreme Federal Tribunal." (translated from Portuguese)

In the same decision, Fachin ordered petitions 15.041 and 15.556, with all related case files, sent to the president's chambers. Folha reported that he asked Mendonça to hand over the complete files of the INSS and Banco Master investigations.

Tuesday's session

The dispute centers on a Federal Police report commissioned by Mendonça that pointed to Moraes as an interlocutor of Vorcaro, a former banker now in prison. On Tuesday (15), the court will debate the validity of the document, which some justices have criticized on the grounds that Mendonça had a colleague investigated without authorization from the full bench.

With Fachin as the new reporting justice, he, and no longer Mendonça, is expected to open the session by reading the police report and to cast the first vote, depending on what the justices decide. The agenda also includes a nullity request from the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and a decision on whether to open or shelve an investigation against Moraes.

The PGR argued that Mendonça should not have requested an examination of the recipient of the banker's messages without a request from prosecutors or the police, and that only the full bench has jurisdiction over any investigation involving Moraes.

What comes next

On Friday (11), Fachin had kept only the Moraes case on Tuesday's agenda and denied a request from the court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, to also include the investigation against Mendonça, which was scheduled for September 23. Folha de S.Paulo describes the standoff between Moraes and Mendonça as the biggest crisis in the court's recent history.