Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) minister Alexandre de Moraes authorized a police search and seizure operation against Raimundo Soares Cutrim, a former secretary of the Maranhão state government who is alleged to have supplied information to journalist Luis Pablo.
The allegation
Luis Pablo, a reporter based in Maranhão, published a story claiming that Flavio Dino, also a minister on the STF, and his family improperly used official vehicles from the Tribunal de Justiça do Maranhão. According to the Federal Police (PF), Cutrim accessed restricted government systems to obtain data and images of those vehicles and passed them to Pablo. The PF also said it found exchanges between Pablo and Diogo Lima, ex‑secretary of Urbanism and Habitation of São Luís, including a bank transfer of R$100,000 (approximately USD 18,000 at recent rates) routed through a third party, allegedly to help Pablo purchase property.
Police action
The operation, requested by the PF and agreed upon by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), sought to seize evidence from Cutrim's premises. Pablo’s own cellphone was previously seized in March during a separate investigation into his reporting. Cutrim’s defense said it had not yet seen the case files and noted that the allegations concern the use of vehicles by Dino’s family, which they claim remains uninvestigated.
Flavio Dino’s office denied any irregular use of state vehicles, stating that an armored car was lent to him by the STF’s Security Secretariat under a nationwide cooperation agreement. It added that security details cannot be disclosed because Dino is a frequent target of aggression, and recent investigations showed even his private vehicles were under surveillance.
Press reaction
The National Newspaper Association (ANJ) called the search a "serious threat to freedom of the press," citing constitutional protection of journalistic sources. ANJ’s president Marcelo Rech warned that breaking source confidentiality creates a dangerous precedent. The association was joined by the Brazilian Radio and Television Association (Abert) and the National Magazine Editors Association (Aner) in a joint statement noting that judicial actions that violate source protection lack constitutional grounding and intimidate the press, undermining the democratic rule of law.
The case remains under judicial secrecy, and no further details have been made public.