Brazil's Supreme Court in crisis: Judge de Moraes under suspicion
The mobile phone of imprisoned banker Daniel Vorcaro reveals close contacts with Judge Alexandre de Moraes – four weeks before the election.
Revelations from a banker's phone shake Brazil's judiciary
The mobile phone of imprisoned banker Daniel Vorcaro has become a damaging document of the entanglements at the centre of Brazilian power. As reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, federal police uncovered messages on the device that are now gradually coming to public light – and plunging the country's Supreme Court into a severe crisis.
Vorcaro, formerly owner of the defunct Banco Master, maintained far-reaching contacts in politics and the judiciary. Members of parliament travelled in his private aircraft, companies and law firms received millions from his network, politicians from both government and opposition referred to him confidentially as "brother". The banker, for his part, systematically sought proximity to judges, prosecutors and senior officials.
Six meetings with the powerful STF judge
At the centre of the scandal stands Alexandre de Moraes, judge at the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). Federal police reconstructed at least six meetings between him and Vorcaro. Particularly revealing is a message from last November: only two days before his arrest, the banker asked the judge whether he should leave the country. Other messages show that Vorcaro sought access through Moraes to the head of federal police and to the attorney general.
Investigators could not reconstruct responses from Moraes, and there is no evidence that the banker's requests were actually fulfilled. Nevertheless, Moraes faces considerable pressure to justify himself.
It was previously known that Banco Master had concluded a consultancy contract worth approximately 131 million reais with his wife's law firm. Metadata on Vorcaro's phone now suggests that a user under the name "Ministro Alexandre de Moraes" personally made changes to the contract draft. The firm stated that Moraes merely checked whether his judicial office constituted a conflict of interest.
Key figure in Bolsonaro proceedings
The matter carries particular weight because Moraes directs the central proceedings against former President Jair Bolsonaro and played a key role in the attempted coup trial. For Brazil's right wing, he has been regarded for years as a symbol of an overreaching judiciary; for many opponents of Bolsonaro, however, as a defender of democracy.
The damaging material was published by André Mendonça, also an STF judge and once appointed to office by Bolsonaro. Moraes accuses him of directing the investigation out of personal and political motives and thus violating his judicial impartiality. Mendonça, for his part, himself had contact with Vorcaro and received the banker last year outside his official calendar.
What began as a criminal case against a banker has become an open dispute between judges that is dividing the country's highest court. A photograph taken after the messages were published, showing Moraes and other judges laughing in the courthouse, quickly spread on social networks – as a purported symbol of complacency, though according to reports the judges were merely laughing at a colleague's joke.
Political network extends into Bolsonaro circle
Vorcaro's contacts extended far beyond the court. Attorney General Paulo Gonet appears in the messages, as does Nikolas Ferreira, one of the best-known politicians in the Bolsonaro camp, who called the banker "Dani" in a friendly manner, travelled in his aircraft and asked him for help with a mining venture. The former communications minister Fábio Faria arranged meetings between Vorcaro and Moraes.
The situation is particularly delicate for Flávio Bolsonaro, current presidential candidate. He personally negotiated with Vorcaro over financing a film about his father Jair. According to recent investigations, more than 60 million reais – roughly ten million euros – flowed from Vorcaro's circle into a fund associated with the film project. Federal police are investigating these payments.
Yet Flávio Bolsonaro is using the revelations politically nonetheless: he demands Moraes's removal and wants to make the crisis a campaign issue at the celebrations for National Day on 7 September, as evidence of alleged partisan persecution of his father.
Lula keeps his distance, Senate waits
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is attempting to maintain distance from the court, whose decisions have frequently favoured him in his conflict with Bolsonarism. Without naming Moraes, he stated that no public office should be used "in the name of democracy" for personal advantage. At the same time, he criticised selective publication of information from ongoing investigations and advocated for judicial reform.
In the Senate, petitions for an impeachment proceeding against Moraes have been filed for years. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre is unwilling to address new initiatives for the time being and wants first to await investigations by the STF. In parallel, senators are preparing a possible petition against Mendonça. Within the court, some judges are pressing for Mendonça to be temporarily removed from the Banco Master case.
The STF, which in recent years has repeatedly acted as an institutional arbitrator in Brazil's political crises, now finds itself at the centre of a power struggle – four weeks before the election.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung