The heated speeches and exchanges of accusations on Tuesday morning exposed a deeply divided and ablaze Supreme Court. The arguments in the plenary session wide open the rivalry between two groups: on one side, André Mendonça and Luiz Fux; on the other, Alexandre de Moraes, Flavio Dino and Gilmar Mendes. Ministers Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin were the only ones to remain silent, while President Edson Fachin struggled to maintain control of the session.
Mendonça's group suffered a setback when Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself recused and abandoned the session after the first argument. The minister asked to leave after the revelation of messages citing monthly payments of R$ 500 thousand from Master to his son Kevin. When announcing the recusal, he used another pretext: said he is president of the Superior Electoral Court and needs to remain equidistant from debates that may influence the presidential race.
