Open war at Brazil’s Supreme Court as judges trade accusations one month before elections

Brazil’s Supreme Court has descended into an unprecedented internal confrontation, with two of its judges exchanging accusations just one month before the country’s presidential election on Oct. 4.

The crisis erupted after police found compromising messages on the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, a banker jailed over an alleged multimillion-dollar financial fraud. Vorcaro owned the now-defunct Banco Master and built contacts with senior officials across Brazil, including Supreme Court judges and politicians from different ideological camps.

The messages suggested a close relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to the investigation, Vorcaro asked Moraes for protection from inquiries and even consulted him days before his arrest about whether he should leave Brazil. Investigators also examined a multimillion-dollar services contract between Banco Master and the law firm of Moraes’s wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.

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No authority is above the Constitution. No branch of government is above the law. The seriousness of the facts does not authorize shortcuts.

The case became public after Justice André Mendonça lifted the judicial secrecy surrounding it and asked Supreme Court President Luiz Edson Fachin to bring the matter before the full court. The scandal, which has continued since 2025, has also touched Federal Police Director Andrei Rodrigues and Attorney General Paulo Gonet, who requested that the proceedings be annulled.

“No authority is above the Constitution. No branch of government is above the law. The seriousness of the facts does not authorize shortcuts,” Fachin said at an official event with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula urged him to “hide absolutely nothing.” Under pressure to resign, Moraes responded by asking for an investigation into Mendonça over what he called strong indications of administrative misconduct, abuse of authority, official wrongdoing and favoritism toward political groups. Moraes based the request on a Federal Police intelligence document that the force itself said had no evidentiary value, while Folha de S.Paulo described it as fabricated. Fachin then took two decisions on the matter, although the supplied text ends before detailing them.

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Hide absolutely nothing.