Brazilian Supreme Court justices at odds as election and probe into failed bank loom

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's Supreme Court plunged further into an institutional crisis on Friday, with two of its best known justices now requesting major sanctions against each other.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, 57, became a household name after leading the case that put former President Jair Bolsonaro in prison last year for an attempted coup. His colleague Andre Mendonca, 53, is the court's first evangelical member, appointed by Bolsonaro.

Their recent animosity stems from a sprawling federal investigation into the financial fraud surrounding the collapsed Banco Master and its disgraced owner, Daniel Vorcaro, a topic that has also ensnared some politicians ahead of October’s elections.

Mendonca reportedly wants de Moraes suspended while the court decides whether he should be investigated in a potential graft case. De Moraes wants Mendonca investigated by the court and potentially impeached by the Senate for investigating him in an unauthorized proceeding.

They sit next to each other in the court, whose benches align according to who was named first.

Mendonca on Tuesday unsealed a part of the federal police investigation revealing dozens of intercepted messages from Vorcaro showing he often sought advice from de Moraes.

The new findings added to suspicions about de Moraes after federal police found his wife provided legal services to Banco Master as part of a 130 million reais ($25 million) contract. The revelations this week triggered a wave of pressure from politicians, the media and legal experts for de Moraes to resign.

“I am grateful to you for my life,” Vorcaro said in one message. “For the love of God, see if you can block all these evil (measures against Banco Master)," the banker said in another.

Even presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who has also been implicated in the Banco Master scandal for receiving about $21 million to fund a film on his father's life, came out to urge the Supreme Court justice to leave his position.

On Wednesday, the crisis at the Supreme Court deepened after Brazilian media showed Mendonca had also privately met with Vorcaro last year. The judge said in a statement he only listened to what the then bank owner had to say, in a “similar dialogue with other members of the Supreme Court to discuss the same matter.”

And then Mendonca confirmed Thursday he had indeed had a more recent meeting with Vorcaro. Earlier this month, he questioned the jailed banker without authorization from the full court as required to investigate one of its members and without the presence of any federal police agents or prosecutors.

Mendonca replied he did so because Vorcaro claimed he had been mistreated by police, an accusation that Brazil's attorney general has already tossed out.

Late on Thursday, de Moraes took swift and unexpected action. He asked the court's Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin to investigate his colleague's conduct, calling it politically driven, and said in his request that Mendonca committed an impeachable offense for interviewing Vorcaro under those secretive conditions.

Brazil's Senate, which is the body that has the authority to impeach Supreme Court justices in Brazil, has dozens of requests for impeachment proceedings against de Moraes, and only a few against Mendonca for now.

Brazilian media reported Friday that Mendonca also asked Fachin to suspend de Moraes from the court due to the revelations from earlier this week.

The chief justice said Friday he will ask for clarifications from Mendonca, de Moraes, Attorney General Paulo Gonet, who also appears in Vorcaro's messages, and federal police director Andrei Rodrigues.

Fachin said Friday morning at a ceremony in Brazil's presidential palace with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who also asked for no one to be spared from investigations, that he will do “what is right, in the time and in the shape that the legal order requires,” without naming the crisis between his two peers.

“The institutions of the Republic must be preserved, overall in moments of the biggest tension,” he said.