President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday (16) that he cannot be held responsible for the appointments of justices Alexandre de Moraes, Kássio Nunes Marques and André Mendonça to Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), because he was not in office when they were nominated. It was the first time he named the justices since Tuesday's session (15), in which the court suspended, without a decision, its review of whether to open an investigation into Moraes. Speaking on the podcast "Desce a Letra Show", Lula defended fair trials with full defense rights, and punishment for whoever commits a crime.
"Everyone who made a mistake has to be judged. I defend a fair trial, the right to a defense, but if someone committed a crime, they have to pay. It applies to me, it applies to Fachin, it applies to Moraes. That is my thesis."
The president had earlier argued that responsibility for the nominations lies with whoever held the office at the time. "I was not president when Justice Alexandre de Moraes was appointed to the Supreme Court. I was not president when they appointed Kássio. I was not president when they appointed André Mendonça," he said. Moraes was nominated by then president Michel Temer in February 2017; Nunes Marques and Mendonça were nominated by Jair Bolsonaro. According to G1, when the Senate confirmed Moraes, Flávio Bolsonaro was a state lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro and only took office as a federal senator in January 2019, so he did not vote on that nomination, contrary to what Lula suggested.
How the crisis began
The crisis stems from the Banco Master scandal. In late August, Mendonça, the justice handling the bank investigation, asked the Federal Police for a report that identified Moraes as a recipient of suspicious messages from banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed and suspected of billion-dollar fraud, and sent the material to Justice Edson Fachin, who brought the case to the full court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the messages would show Vorcaro asking Moraes, days before his arrest, whether he should flee the country, and the paper reported a 131 million reais contract between Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci, the justice's wife. None of these suspicions has been proven, and no investigation against Moraes has been opened.
At Tuesday's session the justices debated whether to open the investigation, but Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the record (a "pedido de vista") before the merits were examined, and the session ended without a ruling, amid open exchanges between the justices. The court's dean, Gilmar Mendes, accused Mendonça of "shamelessness" (desfaçatez) and of acting with a "police-minded" spirit; Mendonça shouted back "shamelessness of your excellency" and denied wrongdoing, saying he had only asked the Federal Police to identify who sent Vorcaro's suspicious messages.
Electoral weight
The statements carry electoral weight: Lula is seeking reelection in October against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who on Tuesday posted a video linking the president to Moraes. According to Folha, Flávio is under investigation in the Master scandal. "His anger is because Moraes ordered the arrest of those who killed Marielle. And because he arrested his father and coup plotters. That is his dread," Lula said, referring to Rio city councilwoman Marielle Franco, murdered in 2018, and to the case that sent Jair Bolsonaro to prison. In the same interview, the president praised the justice: "I think Moraes rendered a service to democracy," he said, citing Moraes's term as head of the Superior Electoral Court in the 2022 election, when Jair Bolsonaro attacked the electronic voting system. Since the crisis began in early September, Lula had avoided commenting on it; sources heard by G1 said the strategy aimed to keep his campaign apart from the fallout among the justices.
The next step belongs to Dino, who has up to 90 days to return the case to the full court, on a date to be set by Fachin. The case covering accusations that Moraes filed against Mendonça, for alleged abuses in the Master and INSS investigations, remains on the agenda for the September 23 session. According to BBC News Brasil, however, it is not certain that this trial will go ahead on that date.