Brazil’s prosecutor general to investigate possible interference in PF report on Moraes messages

Brazil’s Prosecutor General’s Office has told the Supreme Federal Court it will investigate whether interference shaped a Federal Police report that exposed messages between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The office said it had no opportunity to comment during the investigation and was prevented from carrying out what it called the “necessary external oversight of police activity.” Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked the Federal Police to explain the circumstances surrounding the report’s preparation, including the “possible occurrence of an external order or interference.”

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A judge may not accuse, much less conduct pretrial investigations. A judge may not use the judicial police as his long arm for activities that were not assigned to him. Landmark decisions by the Supreme Federal Court leave no doubt that a judge assuming functions beyond his role is grounds for nullity, affecting the results of the proceedings.

Gonet requested the report’s annulment on Tuesday. The prosecutor’s office argues that ordering police to investigate specific people, without a request from either the prosecution or the police themselves, went beyond the justice’s authority during the pretrial phase. Gonet was named in the report, and the Federal Public Ministry’s Superior Council has opened a proceeding to examine his conduct.

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Do you think I already need to be out by Monday?

Even if Justice André Mendonça had found signs of wrongdoing, Gonet said, Mendonça could not have expanded the investigation into Moraes on his own. The matter should instead have gone through Supreme Court President Edson Fachin so the court’s full bench could decide whether to authorize an investigation. In his request for annulment, Gonet wrote: “A judge may not accuse, much less conduct pretrial investigations. A judge may not use the judicial police as his long arm for activities that were not assigned to him. Landmark decisions by the Supreme Federal Court leave no doubt that a judge assuming functions beyond his role is grounds for nullity, affecting the results of the proceedings.”

The Federal Police obtained the conversations during an investigation into Banco Master. Mendonça lifted the report’s secrecy on Tuesday, revealing the relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. In November 2025, Vorcaro asked Moraes about the risk of arrest and whether he should leave Brazil. “Do you think I already need to be out by Monday?” he wrote on Nov. 15. The following day, shortly before his arrest, he asked: “Do you think there’s any chance this will happen tomorrow morning?” Vorcaro was arrested the next day at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport while attempting to board a private jet. The report does not show what Moraes allegedly replied.

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Do you think there’s any chance this will happen tomorrow morning?