The Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) decided on Thursday not to sanction the former investigating judge of Monaco Édouard Levrault, disavowing the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupond-Moretti who was at the origin of the disciplinary proceedings brought against him .
Édouard Levrault “did not exceed the limits of his freedom of expression. Therefore, no disciplinary breach can be blamed on him”, indicates the disciplinary body of the judiciary in its decision, considering that the magistrate had expressed himself “not excessively, without disclosing secret information, on a subject of general interest “.
Shortly after his appointment to the Chancellery in the summer of 2020, Éric Dupond-Moretti had launched administrative investigations against four magistrates, in particular Édouard Levrault, with whom he had dealt as a lawyer and whose methods he had denounced. -boy”. The triggering of these investigations is worth to the Keeper of the Seals to be today indicted for “illegal taking of interests”.
The duty of reserve must not “silence” the magistrates, says the CSM
The Minister of Justice criticized Édouard Levrault for having failed in “his duties of reserve and delicacy” for remarks made in a television report about his files in Monaco, after the non-renewal of his secondment by the authorities. of the principality.
In this report broadcast on France 3 in June 2020, the magistrate wondered in particular whether the judges seconded to Monaco benefited from the means “of a nature to ensure and guarantee (their) independence”. Édouard Levrault had notably been in charge of an investigation in which one of the mis-examinations was defended by Éric Dupond-Moretti. The judge had also conceded “a certain feeling of abandonment” and had wondered whether the independence of the magistrates seconded to Monaco “had not been sacrificed to diplomatic relations”.
In its decision, the CSM considers that the speech of Édouard Levrault “was of particular interest for the public debate and the citizens”, that the duty of reserve which is imposed on the magistrates “could not reduce (them) (… ) to silence or conformity”.
“Reprisals” from Dupond-Moretti?
Initially, Édouard Levrault had also been accused of having “violated the secrecy of the instruction” during this same television report. But this grievance was finally abandoned in the spring of 2021 when the CSM was referred to it by the then Prime Minister Jean Castex, who had inherited these files to deal with the possible conflict of interest of Éric Dupond-Moretti.
Édouard Levrault, now vice-president of the Nice judicial court, had assured him that he had “failed in his duties as a magistrate neither in Monaco nor in France” while his lawyer had accused Éric Dupond-Moretti of having acted “in retaliation”.
The minister is at the origin of three other disciplinary investigations, this time targeting magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) who had had detailed telephone bills (“fadettes”) from lawyers, including his own, examined to identify a possible mole. in the wiretapping case involving Nicolas Sarkozy.