Paulo Gonet states that the case lost its meaning with the US decision; Zanin analyzes in the STF
The sanctions that the United States had imposed on Minister Alexandre de Moraes led the Attorney General’s Office to ask, on Wednesday (18 March 2026), that the Federal Supreme Court shelve the action that sought to prevent banks with operations in Brazil from applying these measures.
The request was forwarded by the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, who argued that the process no longer had any purpose after the suspension of the measures adopted against the magistrate. According to him, without the sanctions being in force, there is no longer any reason for the STF to analyze the case. The information is from .
“Given the notoriety of the suspension of sanctions against which the illustrious Federal Deputy is against, PET has lost its purpose, making it unnecessary to examine other obstacles that would otherwise have to be scrutinized. The opinion is for the extinction of the action, due to loss of purpose”he declared.
The action was presented by the federal deputy (PT-RJ). The congressman asked the STF to prevent Brazilian financial institutions from applying, even indirectly, restrictions determined by another country against national authorities.
In the PGR’s assessment, the removal of sanctions emptied the request and removed the procedural interest. In these cases, the process can be closed without analyzing the merits, that is, without the court examining the content of the action.
The case is being reported by Minister Cristiano Zanin, who will be responsible for deciding whether to follow the Attorney General’s understanding and order the case to be archived.
The sanctions were lifted in December 2025, when the United States government excluded Alexandre de Moraes, his wife and a family company from the .
The change was interpreted as a diplomatic gesture after weeks of tension between Brasília and Washington. The revocation came days after one between the president (PT) and the president of the United States, Donald Trump (Republican Party), in which they discussed trade and international cooperation, in addition to discussions about the case itself.
