After the meeting that sealed the departure of the ministers from the (Supreme Federal Court) report, they report a climate of lack of trust in the president of the court, and point out his isolation in the court.
At least four magistrates signaled dissatisfaction with the fact that he proceeded with one without judicial oversight, rather than summarily dismissing it.
Internally, magistrates criticized Fachin’s stance throughout the session held on Thursday (12), when he insisted, on more than one occasion, that the allegation of suspicion against Toffoli should be taken to trial in plenary this Friday.
For these ministers, this would be the same as throwing one of the members of the court to the lions, making him bleed in a public square, which institutionally would not be expected from a president of the STF.
In the petition, Toffoli’s possible involvement in Master’s fraud. The STF assessed the petition as a “suspicion claim”, and Fachin asked his colleague to respond to the allegations.
Although the support for Toffoli released after the meeting was signed by the full quorum of ministers, indicating unanimity, the discussions showed a division — Fachin on one side and everyone else on the other.
According to reports made to Sheetthe isolation of the president of the STF is accentuated at this moment because he has not given guarantees that he will be on the side of his peers to defend them in the event of any new crises or new attacks, which would be worrying especially in an election year.
Fachin’s assistants, on the other hand, consider that the minister recognizes the importance of the so-called esprit de corps in the STF, but emphasize that the ethics agenda is the priority of his management — therefore, he could not simply ignore the PF report, classified by one of the minister’s interlocutors as pure nitroglycerin.
The meeting resulted in an agreement for the Supreme Court to prepare a note in defense of Toffoli’s integrity and all the acts signed by him to date, at the same time that the minister abdicates the process “for the good progress of the processes and considering the highest institutional interests”.
Fachin had already proposed a code of conduct for court ministers.
Inspired by the model of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, the idea foresees, for example, the mandatory disclosure of funds received by ministers for participating in events and lectures.
The minister obtained the support of the presidents of the other higher courts and former presidents of the Supreme Court, but faced internal resistance, mainly from ministers and .
Thursday also caused an environment of general distrust among the court’s ministers. One of them told Sheet that the recording or transcription of verbatim speeches from the secret session made it evident that the STF is far from being united at this moment.
The meeting took place only between the ten ministers, without the presence of assistants or advisors. As they were outside Brasília, the ministers participated via videoconference, while the others met in person at the presidency’s office at the STF.
