A majority on the Second Panel of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) voted on Tuesday (8) to uphold the precautionary removal of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa. The extraordinary virtual session was suspended when Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to study the case, a request known in Brazil as a "pedido de vista", which prevents the panel from formally closing the judgment. According to news site G1 and newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Justices Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques cast early votes fully backing the case's rapporteur, André Mendonça.
With three justices in favor on a five-member panel, the majority already exists. Folha reported that both votes were recorded less than ten minutes after the session opened. Gilmar's review request has a 90-day deadline, the newspaper said, and until he returns the case Mendonça's individual injunction stays in force: the two directors remain removed, and the Federal Police is barred from producing or sharing intelligence reports on the work of judges, government lawyers and judicial police.
How the crisis began
Pressure on the Federal Police command built up in early September. On September 2, the Novo party asked the STF to intervene, citing messages found on the phone of businessman Daniel Bueno Vorcaro, linked to Banco Master, that directly mentioned an "Andrei", identified by the police force itself as the director-general. The next day the party requested Rodrigues' preventive arrest, claiming there were indications of ties to an alleged criminal influence network. Justice Alexandre de Moraes then lifted the secrecy on six intelligence reports quietly produced by the police between August 3 and 31 within the court's so-called Fake News inquiry.
Reviewing the documents, Mendonça concluded that he himself and the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, had been targets of "systematic monitoring and directed data collection". He compared the setup inside the Federal Police to George Orwell's novel "1984", removed the two directors and ordered proceedings to investigate how the reports were produced. "The superlative gravity and illegality in the production of the 'intelligence reports' demands the adoption of immediate measures," he wrote, according to Folha.
What each side says
In Mendonça's reading, the reports are of doubtful authenticity, have no legal validity and were used to monitor officials. The removal is precautionary: Rodrigues and Almada have not been convicted and answer the proceedings under the presumption of innocence. On the other side, an internal police report was used by Moraes to request an investigation of Mendonça himself for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and responsibility crimes. According to Folha, the document argues that the justice had steered investigations against Moraes and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre "with a breach of judicial impartiality and favoring of certain political groups". Mendonça has also signaled he may ask the full court to open a formal investigation into his colleague.
The director-general has support inside the force. Federal Police executive director William Marcel Murad said at an event on Tuesday, according to G1: "We will not be shaken by attacks". The government is also moving against the ruling: columnist Mônica Bergamo, of Folha, reported that the Attorney General's Office will appeal to the court. The next step before the panel is Gilmar's return of the case within his 90-day window, when the Second Panel can conclude the judgment. No date has been set.