The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Wednesday suspended rulings by Justices André Mendonça and Flávio Dino on the leadership of the Federal Police and removed Alexandre de Moraes as head of the so-called fake news inquiry, taking the case himself. Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues stays in his post.
The Federal Police ruling answered a request from the AGU, the federal government's top legal office, which is trying to reverse the removal. Fachin suspended Mendonça's Tuesday decision removing Rodrigues and police intelligence director Leandro Almada, and struck down the order by Dino that hours earlier had reinstated them, according to Folha de S.Paulo and BBC News Brasil.
On the fake news inquiry, opened in 2019 to investigate attacks, threats and false news against the court and its justices, Fachin revoked the order of March 14, 2019 that had assigned the case to Moraes. The revocation takes effect this Wednesday, preserves all acts taken over the past seven years and leaves Moraes with only the criminal cases in which charges have been formally accepted. The inquiry has produced account suspensions, search warrants and the 2021 arrest of then congressman Daniel Silveira, as G1 recalled.
Investigations into justices suspended
Fachin also suspended every proceeding that involves a possible investigation of court members, including the probes into the link between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, which had been under Mendonça. He also removed petition 16.662 from Mendonça's office, the filing in which the justice made public the reported messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. Both cases now sit with the presidency of the court.
"A picture of conflicts and procedural overlap is taking shape, causing serious injury to public order and to the integrity of this court: successive one-judge rulings by members of this court in separate but intertwined cases involving the same facts and authorities," Fachin wrote (translated from Portuguese).
In his view, Moraes and Mendonça were ruling on related matters based on shared evidence, which shows "a concrete risk of contradictory decisions and procedural turmoil," as Folha reported.
The crisis began on September 1, when Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the STF, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report about messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. Moraes then used police intelligence reports to accuse Mendonça of administrative misconduct, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority, and Mendonça replied with criticism of his colleague's handling of the INSS pension fraud and Banco Master cases. On Tuesday, Mendonça removed Rodrigues, and Fachin gave him 72 hours to respond. On Wednesday, Dino ordered the reinstatement in response to a request from Rodrigues himself, in an inquiry into congressional budget funds tied to "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro.
What comes next
Fachin has called the full bench for September 15. The justices will weigh petition 16.662 and challenges to the legality of Mendonça's conduct in the Master case and in the proceeding against Moraes, according to BBC News Brasil. The session follows pressure from thirteen retired STF justices, the national bar association OAB and business leaders.