This is a first for a Justice MinistryIn office: one year after entering the government, Eric Dupond-Moretti is summoned to the judges on Friday to explain himself on suspicion of conflicts of interest between his action as Keeper of the Seals and his former activity as a lawyer.
A trial in sight?
Eric Dupond-Moretti is expected, with his three lawyers, at 9 a.m. at the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only one empowered to judge ministers for offenses in the performance of their duties. “He will be present, he will answer all the questions of his interrogation,” his entourage told AFP.
Eric Dupond-Moretti is suspected of having taken advantage of his post of Keeper of the Seals to settle accounts in cases in which he had been involved as a lawyer by ordering administrative investigations on several magistrates, including three from the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF).
After an extremely rare and very long search (3 p.m.) at the Ministry of Justice on July 1, the Keeper of the Seals was summoned for a first appearance interview, which means that the investigating committee of the CJR is considering his indictment. for “illegal taking of interests”. He could nevertheless emerge as an assisted witness, less incriminating and which, at this stage, would close the door to a trial.
Can he stay in government?
But if this indictment is confirmed, a question will arise above all: can he remain in the government? Eric Dupond-Moretti, “calm and determined to explain himself” according to his entourage, does not seem to be considering resigning. He derives his legitimacy from the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, he repeats, suggesting that he will not leave… as long as we do not let him go.
“A coup”
“The President of the Republic defended a lot the Minister of Justice in the Council of Ministers” on Tuesday, notes a source close to the government. One minister thinks that “he can hold out”, another is less optimistic: “It’s complicated, especially when you are a Keeper of the Seals”. “It is not possible, it is not tenable”, abounds a former minister, for whom to remain, “it would be to challenge the justice of his country, it would be a coup de force”.
The investigation which endangers the future of the former star of the bar was opened in January, after complaints from the three magistrates’ unions and the Anticor association, accusing Eric Dupond-Moretti of conflicts of interest.
At the heart of their accusations: an administrative investigation ordered by the minister in September against three PNF magistrates who went through his detailed telephone records (“fadettes”) when he was still a lawyer.
This opening of an administrative investigation had earned him a sling in the judiciary and the two highest magistrates in France, Chantal Arens and François Molins, were even publicly worried.
The unions also accuse Eric Dupond-Moretti of having opened another administrative investigation targeting magistrate Edouard Levrault, formerly on secondment to Monaco. Before becoming minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti had been the lawyer of a high Monegasque police officer indicted by this magistrate, whose “cowboy” methods he had criticized.
An “instrumentalisation” of justice by the unions?
Eric Dupond-Moretti “only followed the recommendations of his services, as would have done all the Keepers of the Seals”, insists the entourage of the Minister, who denounces an “instrumentalisation” of justice by the unions for the push for resignation.
“We want to pay for it, it is not a legal procedure but a cabal. It’s a quasi-vendetta, ”says a majority executive. “If he left, what would that mean?” That it is the judges who choose their minister, ”he says.
The defense of the Keeper of the Seals had requested, in vain, a postponement of the summons, considering that the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, François Molins – who opened the investigation at the CJR – was both judge and party.
Eric Dupond-Moretti’s chief of staff claims to have asked his opinion before the opening of the administrative investigation targeting the PNF magistrates. “An institutional dialogue on a question of procedure”, qualifies a judicial source.
But two of Eric Dupond-Moretti’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain, told AFP of their “real discomfort” at the “refusal by the investigating committee to consider the public prosecutor as a witness in this file “. “The highest magistrate in France who recommends referral to the IGJ and does not warn of the risk of conflicts of interest”, it weakens the thesis of a minister “thirsty for revenge”, wants to believe his entourage.