A Brazilian Supreme Court justice removed the head of the country’s federal police and its intelligence director from their posts on Tuesday, drawing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government into a widening feud at the top court weeks before October’s national elections.
Justice André Mendonça, an appointee of former President Jair Bolsonaro, said in his ruling that Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada led an organization that produced six illegal reports on the justice’s activities through the end of August.
Rodrigues is a Lula nominee. His removal pulled the president’s administration directly into the dispute at a moment when Lula is seeking reelection.
Mendonça currently chairs two politically sensitive investigations. One examines the collapse of Banco Master, a case that has ensnared several politicians, mostly from the opposition. The other concerns alleged fraud in Brazil’s pension system, which has raised questions about the conduct of one of Lula’s sons.
The competing directions of those inquiries have placed the justice at the center of Brazil’s partisan divide. The removal of two officials tied to the executive branch has intensified accusations of political motivation on both sides.
William Marcel Murad, the federal police’s executive director and Rodrigues’ acting replacement, said in a statement that the director-general retains the force’s “full confidence” and that agents “will not be shaken by attacks.”
Eleven federal police directors later issued a joint statement offering their resignations in solidarity with Rodrigues.
The government did not immediately say whether it would appeal. Lula’s administration has not commented publicly on the specific allegations against the two officials.
The Supreme Court has been a recurring flashpoint in Brazilian politics, previously ordering a nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s X platform during a content moderation dispute.
Lula faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in October. The senator is the son of the former president, who is serving a 27-year sentence at home for an attempted coup.
The dispute now sits between two justices of the same court, with the executive branch entangled in the fallout. No date has been set for any government appeal against Mendonça’s ruling.