STF president sets five-day deadline for Moraes and Mendonça in court crisis
The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, is awaiting explanations from justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça over the crisis that has gripped the court since messages tied to the Banco Master case came to light. According to CNN Brasil, Fachin opened a proceeding at the court's presidency to centralize the review of the claims now involving the two justices. The goal is to gather the versions of those involved before deciding on further steps or a review by the full bench.The deadlines set by FachinOn Thursday (Sept 3), Fachin gave Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues five days to provide information on the events that set off the crisis. The court president wants to know, among other points, whether the Federal Police respected the rules of the Organic Law of the Judiciary when it came across information on officials who can only be tried by the Supreme Court. He also asked about possible access to private documents, about the disclosure of material under judicial seal, about a search step ordered by Mendonça, and about the prosecutor general's office's oversight of the police.Hours later, the dispute opened a new front. Moraes sent Fachin a ruling stating there are "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority and a crime of responsibility in Mendonça's conduct in two police operations, Compliance Zero, linked to Master, and Sem Desconto, an inquiry into fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security agency. Moraes based the filing on Federal Police intelligence reports and accused his colleague of interfering with investigations, taking part irregularly in plea-bargain negotiations and steering inquiries for personal and political reasons, including against Moraes himself.A proceeding at the presidencyOn Friday (Sept 4), Fachin ordered that Moraes's ruling and its annexes be removed from the fake news inquiry and folded into the new proceeding under the court's presidency. Unlike the fake news and Banco Master inquiries, the new case is not under seal. In the same order, Fachin opened a successive round of filings: the prosecutor general's office has five business days to weigh in on the admissibility and the regularity of the step taken by Moraes and, if it deems fit, on the substance of the claims against Mendonça. Mendonça then has another five business days to respond. Fachin wrote that the measures only complete the available information and carry no prior judgment on the merits.The crisis escalated on Tuesday (Sept 1), when Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report containing messages and contact records between Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes. The material indicated that Vorcaro was seeking access to the justice as the investigation advanced. The prosecutor general's office questioned how the inquiry was run and asked that the proceeding be closed. Two days later, Moraes answered with the intelligence reports against Mendonça.The decisions formally placed the two sides before Fachin. Allies of Mendonça described the referral to the presidency as "protocolar" (routine) in comments to G1. Justices heard by the news outlet's politics blog point to a central legal limit: as a rule, an investigation at the court opens at the request of the prosecutor general or with the office's endorsement, since prosecutors hold the power to bring criminal charges. In the corridors of the court, one source summed up the coming weeks as a "setembro sangrento" (bloody September) of new reports and rulings. Once the filings are in, Fachin must decide the next steps, including what reaches the full bench of the STF.
MRMarina Rocha