2024-02-01 17:20:07
The sword of Damocles is moving away from the former Republican party candidate. The investigation into misappropriation of public funds and illegal financing of Valérie Pécresse’s presidential campaign in 2022 was closed on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, confirming information from franceinfo.
“I am happy to see my honor once again cleansed,” declared Wednesday at the end of the regional council the former right-wing candidate, president of the Ile-de-France region. A second investigation for breach of trust and concealment was opened, notably into the rental conditions of one of the two presidential campaign headquarters after a report from the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP).
She also denounced “systematic, cynical and unworthy harassment” of elected officials from the environmentalist party, including MP Julien Bayou who had issued a report on her campaign. This report, sent in April 2022 to the Paris public prosecutor’s office, targeted the offenses of embezzlement of public funds, illegal financing of an electoral campaign, illegal financing of a political party, misuse of corporate assets and/or illegal taking of interests.
A pointed resignation
Julien Bayou relied in particular on the resignation of regional councilor Babette de Rozières from the campaign team and all commissions due to “disagreements that she expressed with regard to the presidential campaign of Valérie Pécresse”. It was, among other things, a question of “the contribution during her working time of an agent, the chief of staff of the regional president, to the development of the right-wing presidential campaign program”.
The investigation, entrusted to the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Delinquency (BRDE), was closed on Monday for “insufficiently characterized offense”, according to the prosecution. “The report did not bring to our attention factual elements, but comments made by other people giving rise to fears that there was a potential offense,” explained the public prosecutor. During her hearing, Babette de Rozières “did not have any factual elements to bring to our knowledge”, continued the prosecution.
Another investigation remains ongoing. It was opened for breach of trust and concealment and concerns in particular the rental conditions of one of the two presidential campaign headquarters after a report from the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP).
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