Photo: AP Photo / Eraldo Peres.
Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ordered the temporary removal of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada on September 8. Mendonça alleged that the two officials headed an organization that produced six unauthorized intelligence reports concerning his activities through August. The order connected the reports to a rapidly widening conflict among members of the Supreme Court and the Federal Police.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s solicitor-general appealed the decision to Chief Justice Edson Fachin, arguing that Mendonça lacked jurisdiction to determine who leads the Federal Police. The solicitor-general’s office described the removal as a serious threat to administrative order and said it could impair police operations. The police force’s acting leadership and a group of regional directors also publicly defended Rodrigues; their objections are part of the dispute, not a judicial finding on the allegations.
Mendonça was overseeing the Banco Master investigation and a separate inquiry into alleged fraud in the pension system. The former had implicated opposition politicians, while the latter raised questions about alleged wrongdoing involving one of Lula’s sons. Those links make the case politically sensitive, but they do not resolve whether intelligence activity was lawful or whether the justice had authority to issue the order. Moraes, another justice at the centre of the wider conflict, has denied wrongdoing in relation to Vorcaro, while reporting also described legal work by his wife for the bank.
The removal order and appeal left the legality of the intelligence activity and the justice’s authority contested, with no merits ruling in the cited reports.