President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master case at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), used his post "to do politics". In an interview with the Brazilian radio station Rádio Itatiaia, Lula also backed the release of data from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro "so the people know the truth".
"And now that the phone [of Daniel Vorcaro], which was with André Mendonça, who was using his post to do politics, is proven to have been doing politics, making selective accusations, releasing what interested him. So we are certain this will still yield a lot in politics," the president said.
The phone is at the center of the dispute between two justices. On Monday (14), the Federal Police said it had delivered to the offices of Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes copies of the data extracted from the device. It was seized in November, during Operation Compliance Zero, and holds the messages the police cited in the report Mendonça used to ask the court to open an investigation into Moraes. A police survey identified 52 messages from Vorcaro with Moraes as a recipient, according to G1. The Master case takes its name from Banco Master, the bank under investigation.
"That famous secret phone that seemed to be on another planet in André Mendonça's hands... is now in Gilmar's [Mendes] hands, in Flávio Dino's hands, in Zanin's hands, in the hands of other justices of the Supreme Court. Now it is time to start leaking what truly needs to be leaked, so the people know the truth," Lula said.
Mendonça spoke publicly on the same day. According to G1, he said he has "nothing to fear", that he expected to suffer reprisals, and he denied any irregularity or political motivation. He took over the Master case in February, after Justice Dias Toffoli left the investigation.
On Moraes, Lula said the justice "will have to pay" if he made a mistake in the contract between Banco Master and the law firm of his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, according to InfoMoney. In the same interview, the president tied the Bolsonaro family's fight with the justice to a different cause. "The Bolsonaro family's fight with Alexandre de Moraes is not about Banco Master. It is about the imprisonment of the family," he said.
Lula also argued that the cases against Moraes and Mendonça should be tried together. "If you want to do justice in the vote, you have to put everyone on the same day. You cannot judge one person before the election and the rest after," he said. According to InfoMoney, an order motion on joining the cases, filed by the court's senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, has split the bench 4 to 3 in favor of trying them separately. A review request by Justice Flávio Dino could tie the vote.
The judgment on Mendonça was postponed this week by acting Chief Justice Edson Fachin, who canceled a court session. The clash comes in a presidential election year. Vorcaro and his father, Henrique, were summoned by the Federal Police to testify on September 30.