A first for a Keeper of the Seals in office: the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on Monday ordered a trial against Eric Dupond-Moretti, accused of having taken advantage of his function to settle accounts with magistrates to whom he s was opposed when he was a lawyer.
The Minister of Justice, who was traveling in Guyana, was represented by his lawyers before the commission of instruction of the CJR, made up of three magistrates.
“As unfortunately, we expected it, it is a judgment of dismissal which was rendered by the commission of the instruction”announced Me Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain at the exit of the CJR.
“We immediately filed an appeal in cassation against this judgment, which no longer exists”they affirmed, Me Lorrain stressing that it belonged “now it is up to the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation to take up this file” with a new decision on the whole procedure, “and to comment in particular on the many irregularities that have plagued this file for two years”.
“Legitimacy”
Me Lorrain notably questioned the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, François Molins, whom he accuses of having had a “atypical positioning since disloyal and biased”.
Arrived at 9:00 a.m. at the CJR, whose court formation alone is empowered to try members of the government for crimes or misdemeanors committed in the exercise of their mandate, the two lawyers came out of it thirty minutes later, after s be made to mean dismissal for “illegal taking of interests” d’Eric Dupond-Moretti.
The referral of the minister to the CJR will not fail to pose once again the question of keeping the government of the former criminal lawyer, who constantly repeats holding his “legitimacy of the President of the Republic and of the Prime Minister and of them only”.
The two main magistrates’ unions, the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (USM) and the Syndicat de la Magistrature (SM) highlighted in a press release a situation “unpublished” for the Minister, in view of the suspicions of“serious breach of probity” who earned him this lawsuit; of his “attempt to discredit” on the public ministry and the judges in charge of the instruction; of the risk of a “new conflict of interest if (Eric Dupond-Moretti) were to name his own accuser” after the scheduled retirement in June of François Molins.
“Fadettes”
Eric Dupond-Moretti, appointed head of the Chancellery in the summer of 2020 and reappointed to this post after the re-election in May of Emmanuel Macron, is accused of having taken advantage of his position to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had run into trouble when he was a lawyer. What he disputes.
Complaints from magistrates’ unions and the anti-corruption association Anticor, denouncing two situations of conflict of interest since his arrival at the Chancellery, had given rise to the opening of a judicial investigation in January 2021. Mr. Dupond-Moretti was indicted six months later.
The first case concerns the administrative investigation he ordered in September 2020, targeting three magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
These magistrates had had his detailed telephone bills (“fadettes”) peeled when Mr. Dupond-Moretti was still a star at the bar, in order to flush out a possible mole who would have informed Nicolas Sarkozy that he was tapped in the case. of so-called corruption “Paul Bismuth”.
A PNF deputy prosecutor, Patrice Amar, and his ex-boss, Eliane Houlette, appeared in September before the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), which is due to render its decision on October 19. No sanction was required against them. The third magistrate implicated, Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, was cleared before any hearing before the CSM.
In the second case, the Keeper of the Seals is accused of having initiated administrative proceedings against a former investigating judge seconded to Monaco, Edouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his ex-clients when he was a lawyer. Eric Dupond-Moretti had criticized his “cowboy” methods.
The CSM decided on September 15 not to sanction Mr. Levrault, considering that“no disciplinary breach can be blamed on him”. A decision that sounded like a disavowal of the minister.
“The abuse of power committed by Mr. Dupond-Moretti as minister has caused very serious damage to the magistrates whom he has unfairly implicated”, insisted Me François Saint-Pierre, lawyer for MM. Amar and Levrault.
Throughout the investigation, Eric Dupond-Moretti repeated that he had only done “follow the recommendations of his administration”.