Gilmar Mendes Fights to Derail Moraes Probe at Brazil’s STF
Key Facts
—The move — Gilmar Mendes, dean of Brazil’s Supreme Court, asked court president Edson Fachin on 11 September to suspend the vote on opening a Moraes investigation and to judge it jointly with the case against Justice André Mendonça on 23 September.
—The clash — In the 15 September session, Mendes accused the case’s handling of “unequivocal political-electoral bias” and told Mendonça: “Decent people don’t do this.” The session drew 180,000 simultaneous viewers on TV Justiça.
—The vote — The court split 4–3 against merging the cases before Flávio Dino requested more time, suspending the judgment. The Moraes probe remains undecided; the Mendonça case is set for 23 September.
—The evidence fight — Mendes and Cristiano Zanin obtained from the Federal Police a full copy of the data seized from banker Daniel Vorcaro’s phone, over rapporteur Mendonça’s resistance.
—The backdrop — Mendes faces multiple impeachment requests in the Senate and has proposed barring police officers from working inside justices’ chambers.
Gilmar Mendes has spent 24 years on Brazil’s Supreme Court and has never been shy about using procedure as a weapon. This week the dean turned that arsenal on the court’s own crisis — and on the colleague driving it.
What Gilmar Mendes Asked For
On the night of Friday 11 September, Mendes sent Fachin a formal letter arguing that the petition targeting Alexandre de Moraes (PET 16.662) and the one containing Moraes’s counter-accusations against André Mendonça (PET 16.704) rest on “a common factual and evidentiary basis” and must be judged together, under the presidency’s coordination.
He went further: suspend the session scheduled for 15 September, merge both cases for a joint sitting on 23 September, draw a new rapporteur, and formally notify the superior-court judges whose names appear in Banco Master documents. In Mendes’s reading, PET 16.662 — built on a 218-page Federal Police report produced in 72 hours from Vorcaro’s seized phone — was not ready for judgment at all.
Fachin disagreed and kept the session. But Mendes had already shifted the ground: by the time the justices sat on Tuesday, the question was no longer only whether to investigate Moraes, but whether the whole procedure was tainted.
“Decent People Don’t Do This”
The 15 September session turned into the court’s most public rupture in years. Mendes told the plenary that “even the stones know” the petition carried “unequivocal political-electoral bias,” pointing at its timing around the 7 September independence holiday, three weeks before Brazil votes for president.
Mendonça interrupted — “Your excellency is being reckless” — and Mendes shot back: “You do not have the floor and will listen calmly. The choice of 7 September, even the inflatable dolls. This is not done. Decent people don’t do this.” When Mendonça told him to respect the tribunal, the dean answered: “Whoever doesn’t respect himself deserves no respect.”
Chief Justice Fachin suspended the sitting for the electoral-hour break with TV Justiça at 180,000 simultaneous viewers. When the court resumed, it voted 4–3 to keep the Moraes and Mendonça cases separate — a provisional result, because Dino then requested more time to study the files, freezing the judgment.
The Fight Over Vorcaro’s Phone
Two days before the session, Mendes and Zanin asked the Federal Police directly for a complete copy of the data extracted from Daniel Vorcaro’s phone — the device whose messages about the sons of three justices sit at the center of the storm. Mendonça, the case rapporteur, had refused to share it, warning that lifting secrecy “would only disturb the judgment.”
The police delivered the material to both chambers on Monday morning. “What is requested is not disclosure, but internal access,” Mendes wrote, “by someone bound by the same duty of secrecy as the rapporteur.” The move broke Mendonça’s monopoly over the evidence — and, with it, part of his control over the case.
Mendes also attacked Mendonça’s earlier decision to remove Federal Police director Andrei Rodrigues, saying it would “destructure” the force. Luiz Fux countered by recalling that Mendes himself demanded a police chief’s dismissal in 2008 under Lula — an exchange that underlined how personal the split has become. Off the bench, it is worse: a WhatsApp argument between Mendes and Nunes Marques on 8 September, over the police chief case, reportedly ended with the two deans blocking each other.
Why the Dean Is Exposed Too
Mendes is not a neutral referee in this fight. He is the court’s longest-serving member, appointed by Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 2002 and due to retire in December 2029. The Senate is sitting on multiple impeachment requests against him, filed by opposition lawmakers who call him too close to Lula’s camp. His annulments of Lava Jato convictions — most famously those that cleared José Dirceu to run in 2026 — made him the right’s favorite target years ago.
His 5 September proposal to bar police and military officers from staff posts inside justices’ chambers reads, in this context, as a preemptive strike: four Federal Police delegates currently work inside STF offices, two of them in Moraes’s. And with Washington reportedly weighing sanctions against STF members — Dino named Mendes among the possible targets in Tuesday’s session — the dean’s battles now run on three fronts: the Senate, the court’s own plenary, and foreign pressure.
What Comes Next
Everything converges on 23 September. The plenary will judge the Mendonça case that day, and the suspended Moraes vote resumes once Dino returns his files. If Mendes persuades one more colleague, the cases merge — a procedural reset that would delay any decision on investigating Moraes until well past the first round of the election on 4 October.
Follow the court crisis in our coverage of the Moraes investigation vote, the Fux and Mendonça complaint fallout, and the fight over Vorcaro’s phone data. For the man himself, see our profile: Gilmar Mendes — Brazil’s most controversial STF justice.
FAQ
What did Gilmar Mendes do in the Moraes investigation case?
He asked court president Fachin to suspend the 15 September vote, merge the Moraes petition with the case against André Mendonça, judge both jointly on 23 September and draw a new rapporteur. The court kept the cases separate, 4–3, before Dino’s request for time froze the judgment.
Why did Gilmar Mendes and André Mendonça clash in court?
Mendes accused the handling of the Moraes petition of “political-electoral bias,” citing its timing near the 7 September holiday weeks before the presidential vote. The exchange escalated into a shouting match, with Mendes telling Mendonça “decent people don’t do this.”
Does Gilmar Mendes have access to Vorcaro’s phone data?
Yes. The Federal Police delivered a full copy of the seized data to his chambers on 14 September, after he and Cristiano Zanin requested it directly from the police, bypassing rapporteur Mendonça’s refusal.
Is Gilmar Mendes facing impeachment?
Multiple impeachment requests against him are pending in the Senate, filed by opposition lawmakers in 2026. None has advanced to a vote so far.
When does the Supreme Court decide on the Moraes investigation?
The judgment is suspended pending Flávio Dino’s review. The related Mendonça case is scheduled for 23 September, and Mendes wants both decided together on that date.
The Bottom Line
Gilmar Mendes could not stop Tuesday’s session, but he may yet stop the investigation. If his merge gambit wins one more vote on 23 September, the Moraes probe drowns in procedure until after Brazil has voted.
Next in the series
- Moraes Investigation: 2 Justices Withdraw Before Vote
- Fux and Mendonça Complaint Deepens Supreme Court Split
- Zanin and Gilmar Mendes Obtain Vorcaro Phone Data
- Gilmar Mendes: Brazil’s Most Controversial STF Justice
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