# Dilma appoints Lula chief of staff; the STF stays the appointment the next day Date: 2016 ## The fact On 16 March 2016 [Dilma Rousseff](/people/dilma-rousseff) appointed Lula chief of staff; on 18 March STF justice Gilmar Mendes stayed the appointment. He was not president. ## Context The appointment was widely read as a forum-shopping move into privileged jurisdiction. Neighbouring 2017 conviction is later. Dilma was president. 12 July 2017 is later. Mensalão is a different decade. The President of Brazil heads the federal executive, sanctions statutes, and commands the armed forces as a political principal. He does not write STF judgments, INPE satellite pixels, a US tariff proclamation, or a Venezuelan CNE tally. Congress, governors, Petrobras, and coalition partners share specific files. ## Evidence and sources Supreme Federal Court of Brazil carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is justice and [institutional corruption](/drivers/institutional-corruption): a completed blocked appointment during an investigation is a dated due-process-and-integrity fight. ## What is established and what is not Established: 16–18 March 2016 appointment and STF stay, independently reported. Not established: that the appointment proved every later count, or a unique later impeachment coefficient from those 48 hours as his tally. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. He accepted. Mendes stayed. He was not the sitting president.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Dilma appoints Lula chief of staff; the STF stays the appointment the next day, not a later speech about Dilma appoints Lula chief of staff; the STF stays the appointment the next day. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Dilma appoints Lula chief of staff; the STF stays the appointment the next day on 2016-03-16 is not a licence to treat every later Supreme Federal Court of Brazil communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Dilma appoints Lula chief of staff; the STF stays the appointment the next day into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to Dilma appointed. He accepted. Mendes stayed. He was not the sitting president. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: https://factrail.ai/people/lula ## Drivers - Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion - Institutional Corruption: https://factrail.ai/drivers/institutional-corruption ## Sources - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-lula-idUSKCN0WJ2Q5 - https://portal.stf.jus.br/ ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/br-casa-civil-2016