The president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, removed Minister Alexandre de Moraes from the rapporteurship of the fake news inquiry, which had been ongoing for seven years. The investigation will continue active, but under the command of a new rapporteur, not yet defined. The measure was taken through an administrative process and aims to circumvent the crisis that settled in the Court.
Fachin's decision establishes that the criminal actions derived from the fake news inquiry remain under Moraes's responsibility, and that all acts practiced during the course of the inquiry remain valid. By the ordinance signed this Wednesday, inquiries, early relief proceedings or other preliminary investigations that had been distributed to Moraes by prevention to the fake news inquiry will be returned to the presidency, in the state they are in.
The turbulence at the STF was motivated by the confrontation between Ministers Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça. The crisis gained new chapters with the back-and-forth regarding the permanence of the Federal Police director-general, Andrei Rodrigues, in the position. The change of rapporteur represents an attempt to pacify the Court in light of these internal conflicts.
