Can Brazil's Supreme Court survive an election?

Now, without further ado, let's begin.

James, under the Brazilian Constitution, the Supreme Court justice can only be criminally investigated with the court's own authorization.

Um, now that ne- has never happened, and we still don't know if that will happen.

But I, I think at this point it's safe to say that, uh, it's not by a lack of evidence suggesting that many, many justices in that court, at least half of them, could be investigated for ties with Banco Master and Daniel Vercaro.

And it's people across the, uh, ideological spectrum who, uh, possibly have been involved because Daniel Vercaro was very intelligent and, and being generous to people in different parts of the, uh, the political world of Brazil o- over the years, and therefore, um, it makes things very complicated.

I think also we're seeing this battle of something that might have an effect on the elections.

We'll talk about that in a few minutes, I- I'm sure.

Uh, but in the meantime, uh, to me, what's significant is that the people supporting, um, Alexandre de Moraes really wanted to have all of the, uh, charge all of the people who were involved, all the, the entire case of the Ba- Banco Master, uh, scandal to be investigated at the same time, and not just, uh, singled out.

Yeah, and let, let me just to add a piece of context.

So after André Mendonça asked for Alexandre de Moraes to be investigated, Alexandre de Moraes answered by asking André Mendonça himself to be investigated, claiming that Mendonça steered the Banco Master investigations in a political way.

A- and this is something that is really important for foreign, uh, listeners.

Uh, Brazil Supreme Court is quite unique.

It is not only a constitutional court, but also has, uh, penal, uh, obligations.

It can oversee, uh, criminal investigations into public authorities, federal authorities, uh, and, um, and because Banco Master implicates so many senators, lawmakers, members of the government, and members of the Supreme Court, it is under the Supreme Court jurisdiction.

So Moraes is saying that Mendonça, uh, neglected to Part of the evidence that did not fit his political project and just pursued, uh, the leads that went against his, uh, political adversaries.

And then a few days later, Flávio Dino, uh, added another request to investigate Mendonça by claiming that Mendonça himself had financial ties to Banco Master.

Right.

And, and also Mendonça was, uh, appointed by, uh, uh, Jair Bolsonaro.

Uh, he's a evangelical Christian, very dedicated to that, and has a very large following on Instagram.

And so people see on one hand that he has been doing all of this to favor the candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro.

Whereas Alexandre de Moraes, on the other hand, was actually appointed by, uh, Michel Temer, who assumed the presidency after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Um, but very, very adamantly got involved in the, in the campaign first, uh, as the president of the, the electoral courts.

Uh, three members of the Supreme Court are on the electoral court that oversees the Brazilian elections.

He was very adamant about guaranteeing that the elections in '22 took place and that they were free and fair.

Uh, and, and then also, uh, oversaw the condemnation of, of Jair Bolsonaro to 20, uh, seven years.