Jurists point to an internal crisis in the STF and suggest temporary removal of Moraes and Mendonça

Minister Luiz Edson Fachin, president of the Supreme Court, is the one who will decide the next steps. Whether or not the case involving Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça will be analyzed in plenary.

Jurists who have worked for decades at the STF - Federal Supreme Court stated that there has always been fragmentation in the Court, but never a crisis in which ministers attribute crimes to each other.

"It is an unprecedented situation. The Supreme Court has experienced many crises throughout its history, but never a crisis that had an internal origin, where a minister uses his prerogatives to question the criminal conduct of another minister", says Oscar Vilhena, professor of Law at FGV.

"The situation of the Supreme Court is increasingly aggravated in the context of the Republic. I have said that, if the Supreme Court was already facing an external war against other Powers and against a large segment of Brazilian society, now it seems that it is facing a civil war, a war within itself, because ministers end up being in a situation of conflict, of contention", says Gustavo Sampaio, professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidade Federal Fluminense.

On Tuesday (1st), minister André Mendonça released a Federal Police report on the 52 messages that minister Alexandre de Moraes exchanged with Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the Master bank. Mendonça asked for a meeting of the Court's plenary to discuss the complaint. The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, asked for the report to be nullified. He is mentioned in the document demonstrating closeness to Vorcaro.

Retired STF minister Marco Aurélio Mello, in an interview with GloboNews, defended André Mendonça's performance:

"First of all, the judge does not investigate, the police are the ones who investigate. The judge leads the investigation. And then, obviously, listening to the Public Ministry, he determines measures or he himself can ask the police for clarification on elements contained in the investigation, and that is what Minister André Mendonça has been doing. What did he do when faced with a report from the Federal Police? He forwarded it to the Public Ministry so that there could be a statement."

Crisis in the STF: jurists propose that Moraes and Mendonça be temporarily removed from ongoing cases — Photo: Jornal Nacional/ Reproduction

Minister Alexandre de Moraes used the fake news inquiry to retaliate against André Mendonça. Jurists Oscar Vilhena and Gustavo Sampaio state that this investigation must be closed, as the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, has been defending.

"The time has passed to close the fake news investigation. The investigation made sense for a while, but an investigation is something that has a limited time and a specific object. The investigation cannot be perpetuated and serve multiple purposes. This subverts the logic of being a police investigation", says Gustavo Sampaio.

"I have been very critical about this investigation and how long it has taken. It has greatly exceeded the functions for which it was created", says Oscar Vilhena.

The president of the STF is the one who will define the next steps: when and how a possible decision will be made on whether or not to open investigations against ministers Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça; whether the case will be analyzed by the plenary; and whether the session will be open or closed.

"If it is demonstrated that ministers are involved in violation of due legal process, apparently they should be removed from those processes or procedures, without drastic solutions, until normality is reestablished. And investigation, well, investigation must happen whenever there is suspicion of committing a crime. No Brazilian is above the law or above the Constitution, not even members of the Judiciary. So, if there is suspicion of committing a crime, it is good, it is healthy, democratic and reasonable for investigations to be carried out competent bodies, now, of course, always within due legal process”, says Gustavo Sampaio.