José Levi do Amaral


José Levi Mello do Amaral Júnior is a Brazilian jurist. He had been Acting Minister of Justice and Public Security between February and March 2017, after the nomination of former minister Alexandre de Moraes to the Supreme Federal Court. He was Prosecutor General of National Finances and licensed professor at the Law School of the University of São Paulo.

Biography

Academic life

Levi Mello is Master of State Law and Law Theory by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Doctor of State Law by the University of São Paulo. He has been professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of the University of São Paulo since 2008. He is also professor of post-graduation at the Centro de Ensino Unificado de Brasília.

Public career

Amaral was a government employee at the Chief of Staff between the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as at the State Secretariat of Finances of Minas Gerais, during the government of Aécio Neves. He was special advisor of José Serra when he was Governor of São Paulo and commanded the juridical advisory of the Secretariat of Micro and Small Business of the Presidency of the Republic, under the administration of Guilherme Afif Domingos, in the government of Dilma Rousseff. José Levi had been also Consultor General of the Union between June 2015 and May 2016, before assuming a seat at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security as Executive Secretary, the "Number 2" of the office, from May 2016 to November 2017.
When former minister Alexandre de Moraes licensed, on 7 February 2017, Amaral Júnior assumed as Acting Minister, until the sworn-in of Osmar Serraglio, on 7 March 2017.
Prosecutor of National Finances by career since July 2000, he had been Joint Prosecutor General of Tributary and Social Security Consulting at the Prosecutor General's Office of National Finances from 7 February 2018 to 3 January 2019, when he was nominated for the office of Prosecutor General of National Finances.
Mello was confirmed by president Jair Bolsonaro as new Attorney General of the Union, after André Luiz Mendonça was moved to the Minister of Justice and Public Security.