Federal Police accuse Brazil’s solicitor general of omission in dispute involving Justice Mendonça

Brazil’s Federal Police and the solicitor general’s office are trading accusations over who failed to act as a dispute involving Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça deepened.

Senior police officials say the solicitor general’s office, known as the AGU, omitted to respond to Mendonça’s order for a report that exposed message exchanges between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Banco Master executive Daniel Vorcaro. The AGU, led by Jorge Messias, counters that police requests could have led to the annulment of investigations into Banco Master.

The conflict began when the Federal Police asked the AGU to approach the Supreme Court and seek limits on Justice Dias Toffoli’s control over investigations for which he was the rapporteur. The AGU opposed that approach, arguing that criminal matters did not fall within its role and that the Banco Master case was not a government issue.

In January, police asked the AGU to challenge Toffoli’s decision to select experts who would examine evidence in the case. Toffoli left the investigation in February after messages emerged between Vorcaro and his brother-in-law, Fabiano Zettel, discussing payments to Maridt, a company in which the justice is a partner. Mendonça then took over the case and combined it with the Sem Desconto investigation into suspected diversions from social security benefits.

Mendonça later restricted senior police officials’ access to information as the inquiries moved toward Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha. In July, he ordered all acts related to the benefit-fraud investigation to be added to the case in his chambers, preventing the information from circulating through other police departments. He also required advance notice of any investigator’s removal and ordered all extracted data sent to his office. Police viewed the measures as interference in its team management and a breach of its powers. Messias tried to broker a solution and arranged a meeting with Mendonça and Justice Minister Wellington Lima e Silva in August, but Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues did not attend.