Public lawyers criticize PF report alleging political ties between Messias and Mendonça

Five organizations representing Brazil’s federal public lawyers have expressed concern over a Federal Police intelligence report that draws inferences about the relationship between Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça and Attorney General Jorge Messias.

The 50-page report says Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues asked the Attorney General’s Office to challenge decisions by Mendonça, the rapporteur in cases involving the INSS and Banco Master. Messias did not accept the request.

The document focuses on the Attorney General’s Office’s conduct and describes as “atypical” measures allegedly taken by Mendonça in Operation Sem Desconto, which in recent months investigated Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the president’s eldest son. The measures included prior control over changes to the investigative team and an order to deliver the raw investigation files to the rapporteur’s chambers. The Attorney General’s Office decided not to appeal.

In examining that decision, the report says a political relationship between Messias and Mendonça may have influenced it. To support the hypothesis, investigators cited Mendonça’s public support for Messias’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The two men are evangelical Christians and friends.

The report also lists other possible explanations, including a legal assessment that no appeal was available, caution about confronting a Supreme Court justice, and a political calculation by the presidential administration over the impact of challenging a case involving the president’s son. The police acknowledge that they lack enough evidence to determine which factor carried the most weight. Only access to the legal opinion or decision explaining the refusal could clarify the matter.

The report, which has no evidentiary value, was used by Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Mendonça lifted the secrecy over all conversations between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro. It also says Mendonça allegedly considered removing Andrei Rodrigues from his post. Messias’s nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate in April 2026.