On the second day of the hearing, the Minister of Justice, who appeared before the Court of Justice of the Republic, repeated that he relied on his administration to make decisions.
“I never thought that my administration was offering me things that were out of line.” In a firm tone and with the verve of a former lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti denies the facts with which he is accused, Tuesday, November 7, before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) where he appears for illegal taking of interests . In this unprecedented trial, the current Minister of Justice is suspected of having used his position to settle scores with three magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and a former investigating judge, with whom he had had conflicts during his career as a lawyer.
He is thus accused of having launched administrative investigations against them, which he describes, Tuesday morning at the hearing, as “thing” who is he “fell upon it.” “I inherited it because [ce machin] was initiated by my predecessor”he argues in front of the court. “No one alerted me to a conflict of interest“, insists Eric Dupond-Moretti, standing at the bar, his hands resting on the desk, his back slightly arched, a white sheet with a few words scribbled in red ink placed in front of him.
During the four hours of interrogation, he maintained the same line of defense that he has observed for approximately three years: he did not “requested no acceleration of procedures” and trusted “totally” to its administration to order administrative investigations concerning magistrates, on July 31, 2020, then on September 18 of the same year. Just a few weeks after his appointment as Minister of Justice.
A “dichotomy between the lawyer and the minister”
Thus, upon the appointment of Eric Dupond-Moretti at Place Vendôme, questions surrounding a conflict of interest surfaced. Long nicknamed “Acquittator”, he had until then led a thunderous career as a lawyer. “Needless to say it was obviously a big upheaval for me.”describes the former tenor of the bar, invited by the president of the CJR to describe the context in which he became Keeper of the Seals in July 2020. “I have to move: it seems simple, it’s not… Then I have to buy a tie: I don’t wear one”he adds with a touch of irony.
Discovering “places charged with historical memory”, It measures “honor” which is done to him, with a certain apprehension, in the face of this “world” which seems to him “totally foreign”. “I tell myself deep down: how am I going to do it? How am I going to put together my cabinet ?, says Eric Dupond-Moretti. I ask you to put yourself in my place for a moment, regarding what is happening to me.”
As the president of the CJR, Dominique Pauthe, points out, the question then arises of “his dichotomy between lawyer and minister”. “Very quickly, we put in place a sharp and clear caesura”, assures Eric Dupond-Moretti. However, the list of cases in which this mixture of genres could pose a problem, drawn up by his former law firm, is slow to be transmitted to the chancellery. For what ? “I don’t know, it takes time, what do you want me to tell you…”, sweeps the accused minister to the attention of the court. He gets annoyed, but contains himself. He who used to lose his temper for his clients in the assize courts seeks to show that he is the victim here. “I don’t care about this PNF thing!”he can’t help but blurt out.
“Quickly, I have one goal, which is to succeed in my ministry. The rest, I don’t care, I don’t care. That’s the least of my worries.”
Eric Dupond-Morettiduring his interrogation
Faced with President Dominique Pauthe, who insists on knowing if, really, he did not see the conflict of interest coming, Eric Dupond-Moretti becomes exasperated. “I tried to tell you what it was like to arrive in a ministry. I tried to tell you that those around me are magistrates: I don’t think they misled me”he repeats.
“They want to put desires for revenge in my head”
Eric Dupond-Moretti still denies having had “desire for disciplinary proceedings” towards judge Edouard Levrault, one of the magistrates targeted by an administrative investigation, formerly seconded to Monaco. “We can always say that it smells of disciplinary, that there is a whiff of disciplinary”he said, wheezing loudly. “I don’t want to take revenge on Mr. Levrault, he belongs to my old life”, insists the 62-year-old minister. Who laughs: “Settling of scores, it makes me laugh, but what is this expression? (…) I am the happiest Keeper of the Seals in the world, but they want to put the desires of revenge”he regrets.
During “digression” for which he apologizes, Eric Dupond-Moretti wishes to “set the record straight” vis-à-vis Rémy Heitz, prosecutor at the Court of Cassation who represents the prosecution at this trial. He criticizes the opening remarks he made on Monday, “singular pre-indictment”.
“I understood that whatever I might say, basically, the mass has been said. In reality I very quickly understood that we didn’t really want to hear voices other than the accusation.”
Eric Dupond-Morettiduring his interrogation
And when the prosecutor’s turn comes to ask him questions, the tone rises. “There was a conflict of interest, otherwise there would have been no deportation” in certain files, insists Rémy Heitz. “But no, it’s still malicious!”the minister gets annoyed. “There is nothing malicious, I am perfectly objective”retorts the prosecutor.
In Eric Dupond-Moretti’s sights are also the magistrates’ unions, which are at the origin of the complaints for illegal taking of interests, filed at the end of 2020. The minister believes that it is because of them that today he finds himself in the dock. A responsibility that Katia Dubreuil, president of the Magistrates’ Union at the time of filing the complaint, returns to Eric Dupond-Moretti on Tuesday afternoon. But the first witness in the trial to be heard, believes, in front of the court, that “if the minister had followed our warnings from the start, we would not be here”.