Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Thursday (3) asked the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, to bar Federal Police delegates from working in the justices' chambers as assigned staff. The request was first reported by Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by g1 and CartaCapital.
Five delegates, the senior officers who run Federal Police investigations, are currently assigned to the court. According to g1, two advise André Mendonça, the justice in charge of sensitive cases including the Banco Master inquiry and the INSS pension fraud; two work with Alexandre de Moraes; and one sits in the chambers of Luiz Fux. CartaCapital counts differently: one delegate with Moraes, one with Fux and one assigned to court security.
Mendes' argument
Gilmar, the court's most senior justice, told associates that the chambers were turning into "police stations", with investigative decisions now made by the court rather than the Federal Police, g1 reports. One criticism of the practice, the outlet notes, is that delegates inside the court could affect the pace of investigations, since supervision of those inquiries belongs to each justice.
The request lands in the middle of a fight between Mendonça and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. The possible removal of delegates from the rapporteur's team was one trigger of the crisis: sources told g1 that Mendonça saw the attempt as interference in ongoing investigations. The force, in turn, asked the federal government's legal office, the Advocacia-Geral da União, to open a case against the justice, arguing he oversteps his judicial role by meddling in the inquiries, CartaCapital reports.
The conversation with Fachin was requested by Gilmar two weeks ago, according to CartaCapital, and the proposed ban is set to be discussed at a meeting scheduled for Thursday. On Tuesday (1), Gilmar met President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss the court's crisis and, according to Valdo Cruz's blog at g1, said the government was slow to act. Lula also spoke with Fachin that day.
The next move belongs to the full court. Mendonça is expected to bring the Federal Police report on messages between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes to the bench, asking the justices to decide whether to investigate one of their own. The Prosecutor General's office has already weighed in: it deems the current procedure null, because only the Federal Police and prosecutors can request an investigation of a sitting justice.