On February 28, 2022, the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti was summoned before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for suspicion of illegal taking of interests. A case in which he was indicted on July 16, 2021.
This is the biggest crisis experienced by the one who was the surprise minister of the July 2020 reshuffle. Could his frontal attack on the magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office have the straw that broke the camel’s back? Explanations in this extract from “Dupond-Moretti: the permanent boost”.
A conflict of interest… or even two
The affair began in August 2020, just after his appointment at Place Vendôme. An appointment that he celebrated in a restaurant in Nice, in the company of Thierry Herzog, one of his intimates… and Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer. Like his client, he is tried for corruption and influence peddling. A keeper of the Seals in office who is celebrating with a person implicated in a state affair… At the start of the following school year, Mediapart relayed the information and denounced a conflict of interest.
A conflict of interest … or even two, since Eric Dupond-Moretti is directly involved in the case involving his friend Herzog. In 2014, the PNF had opened a preliminary investigation to look for a “mole” suspected of having informed Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer that he was bugged. LThe detailed telephone bills (the fadettes) of Eric Dupond-Moretti, among others, had then been peeled.
“Throttle methods!”
The investigation was dropped in 2015. It should have remained secret, but the weekly Point reveals it in June 2020. When Eric Dupond-Moretti learns that he is one of the personalities spied on, he files a complaint for “invasion of privacy” and “abuse of authority”. And rebels loudly against “trickster methods“.
The General Inspectorate of Justice is seized by the Keeper of the Seals at the time, Nicole Belloubet. His report certainly mentions “a lack of rigor in the treatment of the procedure” and “a hierarchical escalation of incomplete information”, but he clears the PNF, concluding that the legal framework has been respected.
The highest magistrate in the country steps up to the plate
To everyone’s surprise, however, it was on the basis of this report that Eric Dupond-Moretti, once appointed Keeper of the Seals, ordered a administrative investigation for disciplinary purposes against the magistrates of the PNF. A frontal attack which brings out of its reserve the highest magistrate of the country. In an intervention on RTL, the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation François Molins recalls “the need, within the framework of the rule of law, to respect the fundamental principles of independence, and above all of the neutrality and impartiality of justice“.
Faced with rumbling anger, the Keeper of the Seals plays the appeasement card. He who hated social networks then chooses Facebook to explain himself, and announce that he is withdrawing from this investigation with the Prime Minister.
Extract from “Dupond-Moretti: the permanent coup”, a document to be reviewed in “Complementary investigation” on January 20, 2022.
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