The court cracks open

Brazil's supreme court is in what experts call its worst crisis since democracy returned in the 1980s. Two rival judges are fighting in public, weeks before the presidential vote.

Insults on live TV

Tuesday's hearing was streamed into millions of homes. Judges traded accusations, with one telling another he was working for the people who tried to overthrow the government.

“You're at the service of a political group that tried to launch a coup in this country!”

Two judges, two camps

Alexandre de Moraes, a shaven-headed martial arts practitioner, against André Mendonça, a Presbyterian pastor and the court's only openly evangelical member.

Proxy war for the election

The fight mirrors the race between leftwing president Lula and his far-right rival Flávio Bolsonaro. Moraes prosecuted Flávio's father; Mendonça was appointed by him.

A banker and a private jet

The Banco Master scandal started last November when owner Daniel Vorcaro was arrested boarding a jet from São Paulo to Malta. Investigators then found ties to Brazil's political and judicial elite.

The unsealed dossier

Mendonça released police files with WhatsApp messages apparently between Vorcaro and Moraes, plus a $25m contract between the bank and the law firm of Moraes's wife.

“Do you think … I need to get out [of the country]?”

Moraes calls it revenge

He says he is the target of politically motivated criminal lies from the forces behind the January 2023 riots, and alleges foreign actors are trying to interfere in the election.

Lula pays the price anyway

A law professor notes Lula never appointed Moraes and has nothing to do with the scandal. Voters link them anyway, because Moraes jailed Jair Bolsonaro.

“The timing is awful … I think we have a perfect storm here”

It gets dirtier from here

Polls show Lula and Bolsonaro dead even ahead of a likely 25 October runoff. One analyst expects both sides to spend the final weeks selling the other's sins.

“This campaign is going to get dirtier much faster than we had expected”