Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest court, heads into Tuesday's session (15) with no agreement on which justices will judge a Federal Police report that flagged 52 messages sent by banker Daniel Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to G1, justices are privately debating whether Moraes and fellow Justice André Mendonça should take part in the session, which could open a formal probe against Moraes.
The session will examine the regularity of the police report. The court has confirmed only that proceedings will be broadcast on TV Justiça, its official channel, and that access to the chamber will be restricted. Moraes has indicated in internal conversations that he has not yet decided whether to ask to speak or vote, G1 reports. On Sunday (13), court president Edson Fachin referred to the Attorney General's Office a request by Moraes to see a sealed filing tied to Banco Master payments, without ruling on access himself, according to InfoMoney.
Positions behind the scenes
One group of justices believes Moraes should stay away from the chamber so as not to pressure colleagues. On the other side, justices aligned with Moraes are considering raising a point of order to bar Mendonça, arguing that questions over how he handled the report would disqualify him from voting. In a court filing on Sunday, Mendonça said that "all the material for next Tuesday's judgment is available, in full, to every justice" and that inserting additional elements "would only serve to disrupt the judgment".
The Attorney General's Office has argued the report is null. It contends that Mendonça steered the Federal Police's data searches against Moraes and did not consult the court's presidency before taking measures against fellow justices. If the justices do not step aside on their own, one possibility is that the question will go to the full bench.
How the case got here
Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for suspected fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais, according to BBC News Brasil. On September 1, Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report with indications that Vorcaro had sought advice and exchanged information with Moraes. Two days later, Moraes unsealed police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On Wednesday (9), Fachin took the case away from Mendonça, made himself the reporting justice and scheduled Tuesday's session. Fachin spoke with Mendonça on Saturday (12) and said that, depending on the outcome, a section of the Civil Procedure Code on the disqualification of the reporting judge could apply, a move praised by justices aligned with Moraes.
According to G1, justices are also discussing the participation of other members cited in the Master case, including Kassio Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux, as well as Dias Toffoli, who left the case's reporting duties after the police pointed to a link between a family company and Vorcaro. All three deny any wrongdoing, and the bench is expected to accept the participation of Fux and Nunes Marques. A request for review or a postponement has not been ruled out. The next step is the opening of the plenary session on Tuesday (15), when preliminary questions, including the composition of the bench, are expected to be debated before the merits of the report.