By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Ricardo Brito
RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Brazil’s escalating Supreme Court crisis deepened on Tuesday as Justice Andre Mendonca ordered the suspension of federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues, a decision backed by the majority of a five-member court panel but likely to be challenged by the government.
The move marks a dramatic new chapter in an unprecedented conflict that has engulfed Brazil’s top court, pitting Mendonca against fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and comes as the country heads into a tight presidential election next month.
Moraes is one of Brazil’s most powerful and divisive figures, whose aggressive pursuit of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies over a 2023 coup plot led to Bolsonaro’s conviction last year.
Right-wing opposition leaders have sought to tie leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Moraes, while using the court crisis to bolster the presidential campaign of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son.
Recent polls suggested Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro are running neck and neck. Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets on Independence Day on Monday to protest against Lula and Moraes and voice support for Mendonca, a Bolsonaro appointee.
COURT CRISIS
Mendonca last week disclosed a report raising questions about alleged contacts between Moraes and a banker accused of leading a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, prompting calls for an investigation of the justice.
Moraes responded by seeking an investigation into Mendonca for alleged abuse of authority, citing federal police intelligence reports that Mendonca has now challenged as illegal.
Mendonca ordered the preventive suspension of Rodrigues, the director-general of the Federal Police, and Leandro Almada, the agency’s intelligence chief, over their alleged involvement in the production of the intelligence reports.
The Federal Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A majority of the five-member Supreme Court panel reviewing the case backed Mendonca’s decision, with Justices Kassio Nunes Marques, another Bolsonaro appointee, and Luiz Fux joining him.
A top Lula aide, nevertheless, slammed Mendonca’s move as unwarranted judicial overreach.
“Investigating possible evidence of crimes is correct. But this measure smells electoral to me. That cannot happen,” Institutional Relations Minister Jose Guimaraes said on social media.
GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL
A source familiar with the matter said Lula’s government was expected to appeal the decision as early as Tuesday.
The solicitor general’s office is expected to argue that suspending the federal police chief violates powers constitutionally reserved to the president, the source said.
In the ruling seen by Reuters, Mendonca said the measure was necessary to preserve the independence of the judiciary and ensure that justices, the solicitor general and police officials could perform their duties free from “illegal constraints.”
He said that the “exceptional gravity and illegality” surrounding the intelligence reports allegedly involving Rodrigues required immediate action as judicial and police functions risked continuing to be “vilified.”
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Writing by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Brendan O’Boyle and Andrea Ricci )
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