Brazil’s Supreme Court has opened 307 secret investigations since Moraes launched the fake news probe

Seven and a half years after Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court opened its fake news investigation, the case remains open-ended, without a defined target or deadline. Since it began, the court has opened 307 other confidential investigations on a range of subjects, but the inquiry led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes continues indefinitely.

Opened on the court’s own initiative in 2019, the proceeding received case number 4,781 and became known as the “inquiry of the end of the world.” The court has now reached case number 5,088, with the latest investigation assigned to Justice Cristiano Zanin’s chambers on Aug. 28.

The inquiry gained a new and politically sensitive chapter this week when Moraes named fellow Justice André Mendonça as an investigated party. Mendonça is the rapporteur in the court’s cases involving Banco Master and Brazil’s National Social Security Institute, or INSS. The move came after Justice Edson Fachin removed a request from the fake news inquiry and placed it in a separate proceeding concerning evidence gathered by Brazil’s Federal Police against Moraes.

On Friday, Fachin publicly defended ending the investigation. “Recent events demonstrate the correctness and urgency of three goals for our administration: adopting a Code of Ethics, ending the fake news inquiry, and modernizing the justice system,” he said at an event in the Planalto Palace.

The dispute also follows Mendonça’s decision on Tuesday to lift the confidentiality of a Federal Police report. The report compiled 51 compromising messages exchanged over 21 days between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, after Estadão revealed the content. The case, initially focused on alleged attacks against Supreme Court justices and used against allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro, now sits at the center of a widening confrontation inside Brazil’s highest court.

“

Recent events demonstrate the correctness and urgency of three goals for our administration: adopting a Code of Ethics, ending the fake news inquiry, and modernizing the justice system.