Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered on Tuesday (September 8) the preventive removal of Andrei Rodrigues as director-general of the Federal Police and, in the same ruling, of the force's police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa. According to news portal G1, the ruling also requires the immediate opening of criminal and administrative-disciplinary proceedings before the force's internal affairs office to investigate the production of intelligence reports that monitored public officials.
What the ruling says
The filings show that the director-general had sent Justice Alexandre de Moraes at least six intelligence reports, produced in secret between August 3 and 31 within the court's long-running Fake News inquiry into disinformation. Moraes himself had been under systematic police intelligence monitoring for more than 30 days, a practice the ruling describes as unlawful. Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, who heads the federal government's legal office, was also monitored through what the documents called "directed collection" of information. The reports suggested that Messias's decision not to appeal court rulings in the "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero" operations was meant to preserve a "political relationship with the rapporteur".
Mendonça called it "surreal" and "abject" to argue that the conduct of the attorney general and of the rapporteur could be explained by a "common religious background" and by the backing of evangelical churches for their nominations to the court. The documents, he wrote, also engaged in what he described as "flagrant disciplinary-style judgment" of the court's decisions and of the work of other federal police delegates. In his reading, the reports were unsigned and bore no letterhead, seal or case number, which made them "a legal nothing" at odds with Brazil's National Public Security Intelligence Doctrine. The reports' own authors had flagged the analyses as "without evidentiary value" and of "low aggregated confidence". The ruling also notes that the material disclosed details of ongoing investigations involving politicians Antonio Rueda and ACM Neto, revealing potential precautionary measures to their targets and "completely frustrating" their effectiveness.
Professional associations reacted the same day. Intelis, the union of state intelligence professionals at the Abin agency, said state intelligence "is not to be confused with criminal investigation, nor with the drafting of documents intended to form an accusatory judgment". The president of the Federal Police Delegates Association (ADPF) called the circulation of the documents outside the force "totally irregular" and said he found it odd that an intelligence unit would produce such analyses.
How the crisis began
The confrontation took shape in early September. On September 2, the Novo party asked the court to protect the independence of investigations involving the director-general. The next day the party requested his preventive arrest, arguing there were indications of his involvement in an alleged criminal influence network led by Daniel Bueno Vorcaro. Messages from Vorcaro's phone referred directly to the name "Andrei", which the Federal Police identified as the director-general, according to the ruling. It also cites a report by journalist Monica Waldvogel, aired on GloboNews on September 3, according to which Rodrigues himself confirmed to her that the force had produced about five or six intelligence reports "for its own use and records", later requested by Moraes and used to ground a criminal complaint. Rodrigues is under investigation and preserves the presumption of innocence.
Beyond the removals, Mendonça suspended the production and sharing of intelligence reports aimed at analyzing the work of judges, government attorneys or judicial police activity. The case is the latest chapter in a standoff between the Supreme Court and the Federal Police, one that has already led Chief Justice Edson Fachin to demand explanations from Moraes and Mendonça and that Folha de S.Paulo frames within the so-called Caso Master. The next step is an extraordinary virtual session of the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel, requested by Mendonça to ratify the decision later on Tuesday (8), alongside the criminal and disciplinary investigations now open at the force's internal affairs office.