Two Brazilian Supreme Court judges are accusing each other of wrongdoing, plunging the institution into an unprecedented crisis one month before the presidential election of October 4, 2026.
Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, appointed by former President Jair Bolsonaro , this week released documents suggesting links between his colleague Alexandre de Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is implicated in a massive fraud case. De Moraes immediately retaliated, accusing Mendonça of abusing his authority by lifting the confidentiality seal on the documents.
The presiding judge, Edson Fachin, announced Friday that he was giving the attorney general five days to review the charges against Mendonça. The court is also expected to decide next week whether to open an investigation into de Moraes himself.
“This is perhaps the most dramatic moment in the history of Brazil ’s Federal Supreme Court ,” said Felipe Recondo, a journalist and researcher specializing in the institution. According to him, the Court has for years played the role of arbiter in the country’s most heated political conflicts: “Remove the Court from this position, and all that remains is conflict. And that’s a problem.”
Alexandre de Moraes has been at the heart of the political storm since presiding over the trial that led to Jair Bolsonaro 's conviction and 27-year prison sentence for conspiracy against the state. The former president, currently under house arrest, is accused of attempting to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva . Post-election tensions culminated on January 8, 2023, with the assault on government buildings in Brasília by his supporters, who, according to investigators, hoped to trigger a military uprising.
The Brazilian right wing seized upon the Vorcaro scandal to challenge the legitimacy of the Bolsonaro trial. The US Treasury Department briefly sanctioned de Moraes for his role in the affair, as well as for suspending online platforms like Rumble and X, the latter owned by Elon Musk , a close associate of Donald Trump , who himself supported Bolsonaro.
Elected officials from both the right and the left are now demanding explanations from the judge regarding his relationship with Vorcaro, some even calling for his resignation. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of the former president and a candidate in the October presidential election, posted on social media: "Out with Lula ! Out with Moraes! This duo no longer has a place at the head of the country."
Flavio Bolsonaro, however, is not immune to scandal. The investigative website The Intercept Brasil published messages earlier this year that allegedly showed him soliciting Vorcaro to finance a film about his father. The banker reportedly promised several million dollars for the project. The senator denied any wrongdoing, calling the matter a private project.
One month before a presidential election that will pit Lula against Flavio Bolsonaro, the crisis is weakening an institution on which part of the Brazilian political balance depends.
