Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça on Friday (11) defended his decision to preventively remove the director-general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, and the force's police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa. In a filing sent to Chief Justice Edson Fachin, Mendonça denied that the measure harms public order, the standard used to suspend the removal, and rejected the claim that it intrudes on the powers of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to news site G1.
The filing, signed on Friday night, responds to a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU, the government's legal arm) to keep the removal suspended, as reported by Metrópoles. Mendonça rejected the argument that the departure of the two officers would disrupt the force's chain of command, arguing the Federal Police, Brazil's main federal investigative agency, has enough qualified staff to replace them.
"With all due respect to the AGU, the Federal Police is an institution of the state, composed of thousands of members who entered their careers after passing a rigorous civil service exam, and it therefore has a broad and valuable body of technical, qualified professionals able to take on even the highest leadership posts," the justice wrote, according to Metrópoles.
Mendonça also denied overstepping into the executive branch. He said the measure does not stop the president from naming other people to the posts or from dismissing the current officeholders. He cited Supreme Court precedents allowing judges to order the preventive removal of civil servants, including a ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes that barred the appointment of Alexandre Ramagem as Federal Police director-general.
Timeline of the case
Mendonça ordered the removal on Tuesday (8). On Wednesday (9), Justice Flávio Dino reinstated Andrei in a ruling of his own, and hours later Fachin suspended both decisions, kept the director-general in office until the full court rules on the matter and described the measures as a "grave injury to public order", according to Folha de S.Paulo. The dispute grew out of the rift between Mendonça and Moraes in the so-called Master case, an investigation into Banco Master and businessman Daniel Vorcaro. Andrei denies any spying and has said the report on Mendonça was produced at Moraes' request, according to Poder360 and Gazeta do Povo. No one has been convicted, and the removal is strictly a precautionary measure.
On Friday, the AGU reaffirmed its position in a brief signed by Attorney General Jorge Messias. It said a removal "without just cause" directly interferes with the president's constitutional authority over the federal administration and that such a step presupposes exceptional circumstances, Metrópoles reported. Also on Friday, Mendonça answered Justice Cristiano Zanin, saying Vorcaro's seized phone remains in Federal Police custody and that his office holds only a "sealed and untouched" copy of the data, according to InfoMoney.
The next step is a ruling by the Supreme Court's full bench on whether the removal stands. Fachin has not yet set a date. On Friday, Justice Gilmar Mendes asked Fachin to take over the case involving Moraes and to have the Federal Police report on Mendonça examined together with the other pending issues, G1 reported.