There are painful days. On September 14, 2020, Paul Huber, fresh and perky, arrived early in the morning at the chancellery to start his new job. The young president of the Montargis court (Loiret) has just been appointed director of judicial services (DSJ), and, at just 42 years old, it is a great promotion. He already knows Place Vendôme, where he spent six years as advisor to Minister Christiane Taubira then in a sub-directorate of the DSJ. But finally, he is today the boss of 450 high-level agents, responsible for the proper functioning and budget of all jurisdictions as well as the discipline of magistrates.
He barely has time to sit down when he learns that he must chair a meeting on local justice the next day, and the day after that defend the accusation before the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) in a case including he doesn’t know a single word. And when, at 6 p.m., the minister’s chief of staff, Véronique Malbec, sent him the 130 pages of an ultra-sensitive report from the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ) asking for his analysis that evening, he understood that It’s not going to be easy every day.
There is another day that Paul Huber saw coming with concern, that of Tuesday, November 14, when he would have to testify before the Court of Justice of the Republic. A little less than a meter from Eric Dupond-Moretti, his supervisory minister and hierarchical superior, accused of “illegal taking of interests” in fairly confusing matters. The director didn’t do too badly, especially since the Court was starting to get tired and didn’t harass him with questions. He obviously does not have the mastery of Jean-François Beynel, the former head of the general inspection of justice, an old fox who sparkles with intelligence and answered questions without blinking for an hour and a half on Tuesday without giving the less information.
A “very specific” analysis
The report submitted by Véronique Malbec to Paul Huber comes from an inspection of the functioning of the IGJ on the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), heavily accused of having scrutinized the blandness of several lawyers, including Eric Dupond-Moretti, when the investigating judges realized that Nicolas Sarkozy had learned, thanks to a leak, that he had been wiretapped in the Bismuth affair. The report focuses on the dysfunctions of the PNF, which are numerous, and proposes 19 recommendations for reforms, but indicates “that no follow-up in administrative investigation [prédisciplinaire] is not proposed.
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