Security Blocks Access to Brazil Supreme Court’s Glass Facade After Photo of Ministers Laughing

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court restricted photographers’ access to the glass facade of its headquarters after a photograph showed ministers smiling and laughing during a growing dispute involving former banker Daniel Vorcaro.

Globo newspaper photographer Brenno Carvalho captured the image through a gap in a curtain after Wednesday’s plenary session. The photograph showed Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin facing the camera and laughing. Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin stood with his back to the camera.

On Thursday afternoon, court security officers stopped photojournalists from approaching the windows. They explicitly asked them not to aim their cameras through the glass and told them to move away. The court did not respond to Folha’s request for comment that night.

The incident came as tensions among the court’s members reached a high point. Moraes requested an investigation into Justice André Mendonça over alleged abuse of authority, administrative misconduct and a crime of responsibility in his handling of the Banco Master and National Social Security Institute case.

Fachin separately ordered Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues to provide information within five days about a Federal Police report on messages sent by Vorcaro. The messages identified Moraes as an interlocutor.