Brazil's Supreme Court chief justice stepped in on Wednesday to halt conflicting rulings issued by two fellow justices, as a deepening dispute between members of the country's highest court threatens to spill into the presidential election campaign.
The intervention came after Justice Andre Mendonca ordered the suspension of federal police chief Andrei Rodrigues and the force's intelligence chief Leandro Almada. Mendonca, appointed by former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, accused the two officials of producing six illegal reports on the activities of justices. The suspensions were announced on Tuesday and were backed by a majority on one of the court's five-member panels.
The move is likely to be challenged by the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, potentially drawing his administration into a political confrontation weeks before the first round of voting on October 4.
"Investigating possible evidence of crimes is correct," Institutional Relations Minister Jose Guimaraes, a top aide to Lula, said in response to the decision. "But this measure smells electoral to me. That cannot happen."
At the centre of the broader crisis is a dispute between Mendonca and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who was appointed under centre-right President Michel Temer. De Moraes has been a prominent target of right-wing criticism, particularly after overseeing the case against Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly plotting a coup following the 2022 election.
Last week, Mendonca made public a report detailing possible links between de Moraes and disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro. De Moraes responded by accusing Mendonca of abusing his power, citing federal police intelligence reports and urging the court to investigate him. Mendonca has since challenged the legality of those reports.
Vorcaro was arrested in 2025 for allegedly overseeing one of the largest bank fraud schemes in Brazilian history, leaving billions in unpaid debts. The scandal has widened to implicate powerful political figures on both the left and right.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the jailed former president and his current poll rival to Lula, has also faced scrutiny over his ties to Vorcaro after he approached the banker for help funding a film about his father. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence. The Federal Police had recommended charges against the elder Bolsonaro in November 2024.
Senator Bolsonaro used Tuesday's suspension order to renew his claim that his father's prosecution was a political witch-hunt.
"Lula's special group in the Federal Police officially unmasked," he wrote on social media. "May the honourable and glorious Federal Police regain its autonomy to go after criminals, and not Lula's political adversaries."
William Marcel Murad, the federal police's executive director, issued a statement saying that Rodrigues retains the agency's "full confidence" and that its agents "will not be shaken by attacks."
Polls show Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro in a tight race ahead of the October 4 first round of voting.
