No disciplinary sanction was claimed, Tuesday, September 27, against the former national financial prosecutor Eliane Houlette, even if the public prosecutor considers that she failed to “his duty of impartiality” due to past conflicts of interest. Before the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the representative of the executive Paul Huber considered that this breach could not give rise to a sanction. The other two grievances against him, including one related to the “fadettes” affair, are not characterized, said Mr. Huber.
Former Head of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), Mme Houlette has been appearing since Monday before the disciplinary body of magistrates in a procedure which has earned its initiator, the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, to be indicted for “illegal taking of interests”.
Three grievances are addressed to the former magistrate. The first relates to his management of the investigation which had led to the examination of the telephone records of tenors of the bar, including Mr. Dupont-Moretti, then a lawyer, to identify a mole in the “wiretapping” corruption case involving Nicolas Sarkozy. As early as 2021, the General Inspectorate of Justice had cleared Mme Everything “breach of ethical principles” in this folder pane.
Contacts with a lawyer friend
Only the grievance of not having informed its supervisory authority, the general prosecutor’s office, remained. “This grievance is not constituted”, Mr. Huber decided. The rapporteurs of the CSM had pointed out on Monday that the general prosecutor’s office had been informed “directly” of the existence of “the 306 survey” from September 2014, then ” many times “. Admittedly, there was no « specification formula » but one “such formalism is not mandatory”they recalled.
Regarding the second grievance, namely accusations of management « brutal » which weigh on Mme Houlette, Mr. Hubert considered that it is not further characterized. Monday, the former magistrate had assumed to have been “demanding” with her teams to establish the credibility of the PNF, of which she had taken the helm just after its creation. “I was inhabited by the fear of failing for five years. (…) The slightest error would have been exploited to [nous] to stumble »she argued.
On the other hand, argued Mr. Huber, the former head of the PNF failed in his “duty of impartiality, but also of prudence and loyalty” due to conflicts of interest. In particular, he was accused of contacts with a lawyer friend to whom she allegedly provided information on the PNF’s investigation concerning undue overtime at the Marseille Town Hall. “I do not see what I said, what I did that would go beyond loyal relations with a lawyer”said the respondent on Monday, recalling the exchanges of a “distressing banality”.
” Uproar “
She had, moreover, not informed her teams that her daughter worked in a firm in which one of the partners appeared on the sidelines of a file supervised by this prosecution. To justify the absence of sanctions, Mr. Huber put forward that these alleged breaches were known before the retirement of Ms.me Houlette, and did not then give rise to any disciplinary proceedings.
At the hearing on Monday, the former prosecutor protested against the disciplinary proceedings brought against her, attributing them to the ” uproar “ provoked by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, and to his “hate” of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office.