President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday announced former Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski as the next justice minister. Mr. Lewandowski will replace Flávio Dino, who will himself take up a position on the Supreme Court on February 22.
Mr. Lewandowski retired from the Supreme Court in April 2023, one month before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Appointed to the country’s highest court by Lula himself in 2006, Mr. Lewandowski served from the bench as an ardent supporter of the Workers’ Party.
He served as the reviewing judge in the lengthy case of the Mensalão scandal, concerning a vote-buying scheme that encouraged members of Congress to vote for legislation sponsored by Lula’s party in exchange for monthly stipends.
Acting as a strong counterbalance to the case’s rapporteur, Mr. Lewandowski voted to convict in only 37 percent of his votes — in contrast to the rapporteur, who supported convictions of Mensalão defendants 84 percent of the time.
In most decisions, the majority of the court sided with Justice Lewandowski’s more lenient position. This helped defendants get shorter sentences and, as a result, earlier release. When former Chief of Staff José Dirceu was arrested in 2015 by the Operation Car Wash anti-corruption task force, he was under house arrest after serving less than a year in prison for his Mensalão conviction.
A month after leaving the Supreme Court, Mr. Lewandowski was hired as a legal consultant for J&F Group, which owns JBS, the world’s biggest meatpacker. J&F and its owners, Joesley and Wesley Batista, have several cases before the Supreme Court — including a petition to suspend the sale of a major pulp manufacturer.
Last month, Justice Dias Toffoli suspended a BRL 10.3 billion (USD 2.1 billion) fine imposed on J&F as part of a leniency agreement signed in 2017.
Sided by Messrs. Dino and Lewandowski, Lula was the only one to speak at today’s press conference and did not take questions from reporters. Lula said that Mr. Lewandowski will only take office on February 1, due to “private commitments” made before his appointment.
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