Since the 1988 Constitution came into effect, no Attorney General has been removed from a case due to suspicion, nor lost their position, although there is legal provision for this. The issue came to light after Minister André Mendonça, of the Supreme Federal Court, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report produced from the cell phone seized from former banker Daniel Vorcaro, in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates fraud at Banco Master. In the document, there are mentions of Attorney General Paulo Gonet, who, at this time, is not considered an investigated party.
The law provides different possibilities for an Attorney General to leave a case and to leave the position. One of them is leaving the case by decision of the Attorney General himself. The organic law of the Public Ministry allows him to delegate the action to a deputy prosecutor, or pass the case to the vice president, without declaring himself disqualified.
According to professor and attorney specializing in Public Law, Flávio Bernardes, the ideal within these procedures would be for Gonet himself to adopt some measure to avoid questions about his impartiality in the case.
