The ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Flavio Dino, Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zaninfrom STF (Supreme Federal Court), formed a kind of alliance to face the agenda of Edson Fachin as president of the court amid the negative repercussions of the investigation into the Master Bank.
The quartet has been working together to demand a more emphatic defense from Fachin of his colleagues, to try to implement agendas of great repercussion — such as the restrictions on pendants— and to oppose the initiatives of the President of the Supreme Court to deal with the court image crisis, such as implementing a code of Conduct.
The unity of this wing is based on Fachin’s way of acting, although the reasons for each one are different. Moraes has complained about a lack of public support, while Gilmar regrets statements by the president of the STF, such as that “Judges need to answer for their mistakes“, end up fueling the court’s vulnerability.
Dino already understands that the real ethical problems of the Judiciary are bypassing Fachin’s decisions, especially in the CNJ (National Council of Justice). The minister made decisions that would have forced the president to face certain issues, such as limits on funds paid above the ceiling to judges and the end of compulsory retirement as punishment for offending magistrates.
Averse to public events and paid lecturesZanin assesses that Fachin’s ethical rules would have little impact on his daily life. He has told interlocutors that he is not against its approval, but is dissatisfied with the president’s handling of this issue. The reading is that insistence on the matter is exposing the court to criticism.
You Master scandals reconfigured the groups that work in the court. The quartet is opposed to another, formed by Fachin and the ministers André Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Carmen Lucia, code reporter of conduct. The minister Kassio Nunes Marques acts as a pendulum between the two nuclei.
The minister Toffoli Days has not participated in the group’s discussions, although he is equally implicated in the Master’s developments and also disagrees with Fachin’s stance at the head of the STF. Today, Toffoli is considered an isolated magistrate within the court.
Toffoli is suspicious that he or one of his assistants has secret meeting leaked February in which it was decided to judge’s departure from reporting on the Master case and the shelving of a suspicion raised by the PF (Federal Police). Toffoli denies having been responsible for the disclosure of the conversations that took place on that occasion.
Moraes, Dino, Gilmar and Zanin understand that Fachin, as president, should make a public and unrestricted defense of the integrity of his ministers amid the criticism that is accumulating in society over family business, jet travel, relative contracts and mentions on mobile of the former banker Daniel Vorcaroowner of Master.
The group’s perception is that Fachin appears not to believe the word of the judges who deny irregularities, which generates an internal fissure. There is also discomfort with the fact that the president of the STF defended the end of the fake news investigation just in an election year, in which attacks tend to increase.
One of the four even suggested that Fachin make a statement on national radio and TV to dispel society’s perception that the court was under suspicion. The president of the Supreme Court did not like the idea. He understands that he cannot be hasty, as he does not know the content of what is being investigated.
While the confidential investigation progresses and Vorcaro negotiates a plea bargain agreement which can affect court magistrates, Fachin has reiterated the importance of the code of conduct for ministers and made statements that show an intransigent president of the Supreme Court with possible ethical deviations.
Fachin told journalists that “anyone who acts in violation of an ethical rule needs to feel forced to rethink their behavior.” He stated at an event at the STF that judges must act with “distancing of the parties and interests at stake“. He also spoke in a lecture that “there is no legitimacy” in the Judiciary without the trust of the population.
The president of the STF tells assistants that he never stopped carrying out the institutional defense of the court and that disagreements are part of the routine of a collegiate body. Fachin also says he maintains periodic dialogue with all members of the court to map the main challenges, prepare the plenary agenda on an equal basis among rapporteurs and seek joint solutions to thorny issues, such as penduricalhos.
