The new Minister of Justice, , returns to office after almost ten years of a lightning stint in the post. His departure, at the time, was met with a little push from , who preceded him to the position now in 2026.
Lima e Silva was the government’s Minister of Justice () for just 14 days, in March 2016. Attorney at the Public Ministry of Bahia, he replaced , who had been transferred to the Federal Attorney General’s Office amid the PT crisis and tensions with Lava Jato.
Lima e Silva’s inauguration was annulled by the (Federal Supreme Court) after the Court determined that members of the Public Ministry. At the time, Lewandowski presided over the Supreme Court and voted in favor of not accumulating functions.
When Lima e Silva took office, the PPS (today Cidadania) asked that the appointment be suspended on the grounds that, as a prosecutor, he should renounce his career to join the .
Rapporteur of the action, the minister understood that the attitude violated the principle of separation of powers. His vote was followed by all other STF ministers, with the exception of Marco Aurélio Mello.
Lewandowski, when justifying his own vote, said that the decision did not judge Lima e Silva as a person, but rather the fact that he could not assume a position in the Executive as a member of the MP. He added that the newly appointed minister should ask for dismissal from the Prosecutor’s Office.
“Of course it is a difficult, very personal decision, but the Federal Supreme Court is absolutely not interfering in the decision of the Presidency of the Republic,” said Lewandowski.
Dias Toffoli added to his colleague’s speech, citing the example of Alexandre de Moraes, who had left his career as a São Paulo MP years before to take up a position in the government of São Paulo. Coincidentally, Moraes was appointed minister of the STF the following year.
Lima e Silva opted for a career as a prosecutor, from which he retired in January 2023, to take over the Secretariat of Legal Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic. He remained in the position until July 2024, when he was appointed by the president (PT) himself to head Petrobras’ legal department.
Now, Lima e Silva returns to the Ministry of Justice after Lewandowski last week.
Both in 2016 and 2026, the choice of Lima e Silva as minister was articulated by (PT-BA), who governed Bahia during the period in which the former prosecutor headed the MP in the state.
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