He returned in 1980 and was politically active, culminating in a post as chief-of-staff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration from 2003 until his resignation due to corruption charges.

[2] Dirceu moved to São Paulo in 1961 and in 1966 joined the Ala Marighella, later called the ALN, a revolutionary armed group linked to the Brazilian Communist Party.

[3] Dirceu held numerous posts in the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), of which he is a founder, including the presidency of the National Executive between 1995 and 1997.

In Brazil, the chief-of-staff has a ministerial status similar to the British Cabinet Office, and Lula's presidential decree putting him in charge of all government appointments gave him more power still.

[4] Dirceu's departure as Lula's chief-of-staff is attributed to a massive corruption scheme in the legislature, the Mensalão scandal.

He was expelled from the Congress on November 30, 2005, accused of breaching the parliamentary decorum due to his involvement with the Mensalão scandal, and barred from holding any executive or legislative positions until 2015.

On August 3, 2015, he was again arrested on suspicion of corruption and money laundering as result of the Operation Car Wash investigation.

[9] The prosecutor in charge of the investigation called the decision "incoherent" and said that Dirceu's liberty posed "real risk to society".

Prosecutors charged Dirceu the same day with diverting R2.4 million from Petrobras contracts with Engevix [pt] and UTC.