Because of a Twitter photo: Investigations against Scholz’s State Secretary

After the searches in the Ministry of Finance, he is said to have published parts of the court decision on Twitter: Now the Osnabrück public prosecutor has initiated an investigation against State Secretary Schmidt.

After the search in the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Osnabrück public prosecutor initiated another investigation. It is directed against Wolfgang Schmidt, a State Secretary for Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

A photo was published on Schmidt’s Twitter account on Sunday showing parts of the court order that ordered the search of the Ministry of Finance. According to the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office, Paragraph 353d of the Criminal Code prohibits making documents from preliminary proceedings public before they are heard in court. The “Tagesspiegel” had first reported on the process.

Schmidt defended himself against the accusation via Twitter. After the searches in the Ministry of Finance and Justice, the public had the impression that federal ministries were being investigated. “This false impression made it necessary for the public to get an idea of ​​the facts for themselves,” said Schmidt. And further: “I am confident that the allegations can be quickly dispelled.”

Berlin public prosecutor’s office should take over

The Osnabrück public prosecutor has now asked the Berlin public prosecutor to take over the proceedings. Both public prosecutors confirmed this at the request of the ARD capital studios. The Federal Ministry of Finance has not yet commented.

Investigators searched the Treasury and Justice Department last Thursday. The background to this is the investigation by the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office against employees of an anti-money laundering unit at customs, the so-called Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Since last year, the public prosecutors have been investigating a suspicion of thwarting punishment in office by the FIU.