Brazil's Supreme Court Fractures as Justices Fight Over Moraes's Sealed Files Before the Runoff

Brazil votes in a presidential runoff on 25 October with its Supreme Court in open institutional crisis. Two justices are fighting over access to files in inquiries led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. One, Luiz Fux, has ordered the court's own secretariat to hand his office sealed material within 48 hours. Another, Edson Fachin, who took the fake-news inquiry from Moraes in September, has refused. Between them sits a Senate that has never removed a justice and a challenger who says it should.

Brazil's Supreme Court Fractures as Justices Fight Over Moraes's Sealed Files Before the Runoff

Brasilia, Brazil — Brazil's Supreme Court is in open institutional crisis weeks before a presidential runoff, and a fight between two of its justices over sealed case files has become the sharpest sign yet of how far the court's internal divisions now reach.

A Court Under Siege

The Supreme Court of Brazil, the Supremo Tribunal Federal, is in an open institutional crisis weeks before the runoff between incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, according to The World/PRX. The flashpoint is a fight between two justices over access to files in inquiries led by Moraes. The dispute has drawn in the court's presidency, the Prosecutor-General's Office and the Federal Police. It has also drawn in the Senate, where more than 50 of the senators elected in October take office in 2027 supporting the impeachment of Supreme Court justices, according to JusConsulta. The court has not settled the question of who may see what. The campaign has not settled the question of who governs after 25 October.

Fux Demands the Files

On Thursday 8 October, Justice Luiz Fux ordered the STF's Judicial Secretariat to give his office full electronic access, within 48 hours, to four processes tied to the fake-news inquiry, O Globo reported. They are Inq 4.781, the fake-news inquiry; Inq 4.874, the digital militias inquiry; Pet 10.405; and Pet 12.100, the last of which gave rise to Operation Tempus Veritatis against then-president Jair Bolsonaro and allies. The access covers volumes, annexes, attachments, media, documents and decisions that run under any level of secrecy, according to O Globo. Fux is the rapporteur of ADPF 1.144, an action filed by the Progressistas party against a 18 December 2023 order by Moraes. Fux did not ask Moraes for information. He wrote that "the version of this [Moraes] about the act, however faithful, does not substitute the act."

Fachin Says No, For Now

On 9 October, STF President Edson Fachin denied Fux immediate access to the fake-news file, saying 104 procedures tied to the inquiry remain under organisation and must be reviewed before the case is made public or archived, according to Particle News, G1 and Poder360. The STF Presidency told justices that three of the four related procedures are already public while the central fake-news file stays sealed pending those steps. Fachin has said the fake-news inquiry will be archived. He has also said that "the gravity of the facts does not authorise shortcuts." Fachin took the relatoria of the fake-news inquiry himself on 9 September, revoking Moraes's designation amid the Moraes-Mendonca crisis, Poder360 and O Globo reported. Pending inquiries, petitions and preliminary investigations connected to Inq 4.781 returned to the STF presidency. Criminal actions already filed stayed with their justices.

The Banker at the Centre

The underlying scandal centres on reports by the Federal Police on the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, who is in prison on financial-fraud charges, according to UOL and Valor. The report contains 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to a number the PF identifies as belonging to Moraes, exchanged between 28 October and 17 November 2025, the day Vorcaro was first arrested. In them Vorcaro relays sealed information about investigations into the bank and asks for help to contain or delay actions by the Federal Police and the Prosecution Service, and asks whether it would be possible to appeal to PF chief Andrei Rodrigues and Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, UOL reported. Vorcaro wrote the messages in his phone's notes app, took screenshots and sent them as view-once images. The replies attributed to the justice were also sent that way and were not recovered by the PF. The material therefore shows what Vorcaro asked but, in most episodes, cannot show what Moraes answered, and does not prove he complied with any request.

A Contract and a Question

Banco Master negotiated a contract of about 131 million reais with the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, according to UOL. Metadata indicate the final version of the document was edited in a profile identified as "Ministro Alexandre de Moraes". The firm says he was consulted only to check for possible legal impediments. Messages also show the authorisation of Banco Master credit cards with a 300,000-real limit for two of the couple's children; there is no proof in the released material that the cards were used. Moraes also used at least once an aircraft belonging to a company of which Vorcaro had been a partner, UOL reported. On 28 August, Justice Andre Mendonca secretly detached nine sets of documents from the Master case and turned them into a sealed investigation against Moraes, keeping the relatoria and imposing secrecy level 4, according to Brasil em Folhas. Three days later he made the accusations public.

The Impeachment Arithmetic

The constitutional threshold: the Senate can remove an STF justice with 54 votes, two-thirds of the 81-seat chamber, according to Conjur, Erga Omnes and the Senate of Brazil. The Senate has never approved the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice. The counts differ and must be attributed separately. Conjur reported on 5 October that the Bolsonarist bloc approaches the quorum with 45 senators in 2027. G1 reported on 6 October that the PL alone will start 2027 with 28 senators and that surveys point to a contingent close to the 54 votes needed. O Globo's column on 10 October put the impeachment bench at at least 49 members. BBC Brasil noted on 5 October that the Bolsonarist bench alone cannot approve an impeachment. On Saturday 10 October, JusConsulta reported that Moraes privately admitted to legal interlocutors that he was surprised by the Senate election result, having expected a more moderate Senate and the re-election of Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, who decides whether impeachment requests are put on the agenda.

Flavio Bolsonaro's Pledge

On Friday 9 October, Flavio Bolsonaro said he expects his coalition to hold 54 of the 81 Senate seats by 2027, precisely the constitutional threshold to remove a justice, according to Latin Times and Valor International. He has named Moraes, Flavio Dino and Cristiano Zanin as justices he considers guilty of partisan conduct and said he would back Senate impeachment proceedings against them. At a 15 September rally in Fortaleza he said that "the Supreme Court, without Lula's justices, has a solution," and pledged to name five new justices who would "serve the Constitution and not Lula." The first round of the presidential election was held on 4 October. Flavio Bolsonaro topped it, entering the runoff with approximately 56 million votes, roughly five million more than his father Jair received in the first round of 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, cited by Latin Times. Four STF seats will open during the next presidential term through mandatory retirements.

The Court Says It Will Wait

On Friday 9 October, Valor International reported that STF justices have largely played down Flavio Bolsonaro's calls for constitutional change and a judicial overhaul, arguing the court should not respond to campaign proposals before they become concrete measures. Behind the scenes, some justices worry a more hostile Congress could leave the court with less room to resist changes affecting its powers. Retired STF justice Celso de Mello told O Globo that "reforming the Constitution does not give an election winner the right to destroy it." He added that "the Constitution cannot be treated as an electoral blank check," and that constitutional reform is a legitimate instrument for improving institutions, but its exercise is subject to procedures and limits that no electoral victory authorises anyone to disregard. The World/PRX described the court crisis as a sign of Brazil's deep polarisation. Lula has said that if he is re-elected he will call for judicial reform.

What Happens on Tuesday

On Saturday 10 October, G1 reported that Fachin is due to receive, on Tuesday 13 October, PF reports that mention STF justices in the Master case. Camps around both Moraes and Mendonca argue the best path is for the STF presidency to send the elements gathered by the PF to the PGR for technical assessment, which would also buy time for an internal settlement. The two camps are still not speaking to each other, according to G1. The same day, the 90-day restriction Moraes imposed in July barring Flavio Bolsonaro from meeting his father Jair expired, O Globo's Malu Gaspar reported. The PL campaign expects Moraes to authorise new visits. On Thursday 8 October, Moraes issued an arrest warrant for Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flavio's younger brother and a former federal deputy, directing the Federal Police to detain him on his return to Brazilian soil to begin serving a four-year, two-month sentence in a semi-open regime for coercing Brazil's justice system through a lobbying campaign directed at the Trump administration, according to Latin Times and Al Jazeera. Eduardo has lived in Texas as a green-card holder since early 2025 and faces little realistic prospect of extradition.

The Stakes Before October 25

The fake-news inquiry was opened on 14 March 2019 by then STF president Dias Toffoli, on the court's own motion and without a request from the Prosecution Service, with Moraes designated at the time, according to Valor and Poder360. The full court validated it in 2020 by 10 votes to 1. Critics, including retired justice Marco Aurelio Mello, dubbed it the "inquiry of the end of the world." The PP asks for Pet 12.100 to be suspended and all the acts and evidence in it annulled, arguing Moraes opened an inquiry under the label of a petition without a PGR request, that he investigates and judges the same case, and that no suspect has standing at the STF. Fux has not ruled on the merits of ADPF 1.144. No impeachment petition against Moraes has been acted on by the Senate. The recovered material does not show Moraes's replies to Vorcaro.

Fachin's decision on Tuesday will land in the middle of a runoff campaign in which one candidate has pledged to remake the court and the other has pledged judicial reform. The court's own president has said the fake-news inquiry will be archived, and that the gravity of the facts does not authorise shortcuts. Fux has written that to hold otherwise would be to admit "the existence of persecutions immune from any control on behalf of institutionality." Neither statement settles the access fight. Neither settles the election. Both are now on the record before 25 October.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: O Globo, G1, UOL, Conjur, Valor International, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Latin Times, The World/PRX, BBC Brasil, Particle News, Poder360, JusConsulta, Brasil em Folhas and claudiodantas.com.br.