President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been complaining privately to allies about what he sees as the inertia of his justice minister, Wellington Lima e Silva, but a change at the top of the ministry is ruled out for now. The report came from the Painel column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, published on Saturday (12).
According to Folha, the complaints come amid a crisis of unprecedented proportions involving Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police. The Justice Ministry, the portfolio held by Wellington, commands the Federal Police, the institution at the center of the dispute between the court's justices.
How the crisis began
The standoff at the court grew out of Federal Police investigations into fraud at Banco Master, owned by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, and into the financing of "Dark Horse", a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. One police report pointed to more than 50 messages from Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. A separate police intelligence document, sent to the court at Moraes' request in the fake news inquiry and described by news site G1 as carrying no probative value, questions the conduct of rapporteur André Mendonça in the Master and INSS cases, the INSS being Brazil's federal social security institute, citing alleged lack of impartiality.
On Saturday, court president Edson Fachin rejected Moraes' request to take both matters up together. Moraes accuses Mendonça of a "selective choice" in unsealing only part of the case files, with about 180 pieces left out. Mendonça denies it and said keeping parts of the files sealed was a "prudent and responsible" step. Neither justice is a defendant: the court's sessions will decide whether investigations against them are opened at all.
What comes next
The Supreme Court meets on Tuesday (15), in a special session, to weigh the police report on the messages between Vorcaro and Moraes. On September 23, the full court examines the challenges to Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS cases.
A change at the Justice Ministry is the president's call alone. As of Saturday, according to Folha, no replacement for Wellington Lima e Silva is planned.