A political and institutional crisis in Brazil deepened dramatically on Tuesday after Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of the country’s top law enforcement official, Federal Police (PF) Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, and the agency’s Director of Police Intelligence, Leandro Almada. The high-stakes, monocratic decision was issued after Mendonça claimed he was the target of “institutional wiretapping” (*arapongagem institucional*) by the PF’s intelligence sector, citing the production of confidential reports on his judicial activities. The move immediately escalated the conflict between Brazil’s judiciary and the executive branch, which controls the Federal Police.