Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice, remains indicted for “illegal taking of interests”

The investigating commission of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) rejected, Wednesday, November 3, the request filed by the lawyers of the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti. So it remains indicted for “illegal taking of interests”, said a judicial source, confirming an information by BFM-TV.

Suspected of having taken advantage of his function to settle accounts with magistrates when he was a lawyer, the Keeper of the Seals had notably raised the“Inadmissibility of the complaints at the origin of the referral to the CJR” and “The partiality of the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation”, François Molins, according to the same source.

Appeal in cassation

The investigative committee of the CJR, the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes and offenses committed “In the performance of their duties”, also rejected the requests for annulment of the referral to the commission and of the fifteen-hour search that had been carried out on 1^er July at the Ministry of Justice.

“This refusal is not a surprise. The Court of Justice of the Republic is the only jurisdiction in France and certainly in member countries of the Council of Europe where the judges on appeal are the same as at first instance ”, reacted the lawyers of the minister, Olivier Cousi, Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain. “We did not hope that the magistrates, authors of the nullities that we invoked, themselves cancel the procedure vitiated by their own nullities. After this obligatory passage, we form an appeal in cassation so that finally rule by magistrates different from those who instruct ”, they added.

In addition, on October 26, the first presidency of the Court of Cassation rejected the request for recusal of the magistrates of the CJR responsible for investigating the case, filed by the defense of the Minister of Justice, according to the judicial source.

Bismuth case, Corsica …

The CJR has opened in January a judicial investigation for “illegal taking of interests” after having received complaints from the three magistrates’ unions and the Anticor association denouncing situations of conflict of interest in two cases.

Eric Dupond-Moretti is suspected of having taken advantage of his function on several occasions to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had trouble with when he was a lawyer, which he denies.

A first file concerns the administrative investigation ordered in September 2020 by the Keeper of the Seals against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) who had his detailed telephone records (“fadettes”) scrutinized when he was still a star in the courtroom. The PNF then sought to flush out a “Mole” having been able to inform Nicolas Sarkozy and his counsel Thierry Herzog – a friend of Eric Dupond-Moretti – that they were wiretapped in the so-called “Bismuth” corruption case, pseudonym used by the former head of state to use a telephone line distinct from its name. Vilifying what he called “Methods of barbouzes” of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Eric Dupond-Moretti had filed a complaint, before withdrawing it on the evening of his appointment as Keeper of the Seals, July 6, 2020.

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 and including Mr. Dupond-Moretti had criticized the methods of “Cowboy” after this magistrate had spoken in a report.

The magistrates’ unions also reported to the investigating committee of the CJR three other interventions by the Keeper of the Seals that they considered problematic, including one in the fall with Corsican detainees when he had been the lawyer for one of them, Yvan Colonna. But the CJR’s petitions commission issued an unfavorable opinion, refusing to order further information for these facts, according to a judicial source.

Eric Dupond-Moretti has always defended himself against any illegal taking of interests, arguing that he had only done “Follow the recommendations” of its administration. The potential conflicts of interest of the new Keeper of the Seals had, however, led to his removal from the follow-up of his former affairs, which had passed under the control of Matignon. at the end of October 2020.