The Court of Justice of the Republic has ruled. She decided to have Eric Dupond-Moretti appear before her trial court, the only one authorized to try members of the government for crimes or offenses committed in the exercise of their mandate.
The Keeper of the Seals is suspected of conflicts of interest. The CJR indicted this former tenor of the bar for illegal taking of interest in July 2021. He is accused of having taken advantage of his position to settle scores with magistrates whom he had opposed when he was a lawyer, announced his advice on Monday.
Appeal in cassation
“As unfortunately we expected, it is a dismissal judgment that was issued by the commission of the instruction [de la CJR]. We immediately lodged an appeal in cassation against this ruling. This stop no longer exists, ”announced Me Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain at the exit of the CJR, in Paris, in the absence of Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“It is now up to the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation to take up this file and to rule in particular on the numerous irregularities which have marred this file for two years, foremost among which is the atypical positioning, since it is unfair and biased by the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation”, François Molins, added Me Rémi Lorrain.
A minister who must “repair” justice
Arrived at nine o’clock at the CJR, whose court formation alone is empowered to try members of the government for crimes or misdemeanors committed in the exercise of their mandate, the two lawyers came out of it thirty minutes later, after to be served with the dismissal for “illegal taking of interests” of Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Appointed to everyone’s surprise in the summer of 2020, reappointed to the wire during the reshuffle last July, the ex-lawyer will now have to convince Emmanuel Macron that his legal troubles, unprecedented for a Keeper of the Seals, will not hinder his mission to “repair” an institution in chronic crisis.
A weakened minister
“I have always said that I held my legitimacy from the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister and from them alone,” he said recently, anticipating his dismissal on trial.
The Elysée has so far maintained its confidence in him and seems to care about this divisive and eruptive minister who does not hesitate to attack right and left, the National Rally like La France insoumise, or to denounce the climate of “denouncement that certain feminists would reign. To his credit Place Vendôme, the former tenor of the bar, aged 61, can boast of having snatched three consecutive increases of 8% from the Justice budget, a large part of which will finance the construction of 15,000 prison places.