At the Court of Justice of the Republic,
Imagine an injured doctor who would be tempted to snatch the scalpel from the surgeon’s hands to operate on himself. This is a bit like the situation in which Éric Dupond-Moretti finds himself since the start of his trial on Monday before the Court of Justice of the Republic for “illegal taking of interests”. This Wednesday, while the witnesses – most often senior magistrates – take the stand, the Minister of Justice has difficulty remaining in place.
The former lawyer takes notes, exchanges with his defense, nods in denial, flinches, rubs his hands. His criminal instinct resurfaces. From time to time, the president, Dominique Pauthe, is obliged to call him to order. “We must let the witness respond without speaking,” the magistrate tells him. The minister, who says he is innocent, waits his turn to speak and, in the meantime, lets his lawyers, Jacqueline Laffont and Rémi Lorrain, question the witnesses.
The first to take the stand is Patrice Amar, one of the three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) against whom the Minister of Justice has opened administrative investigations. Why ? At the time, Patrice Amar launched an investigation to try to identify the source who had warned the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his lawyer Thierry Herzog, that they were being tapped, as part of the so-called “Paul Bismuth” affair.
Still a lawyer, Éric Dupond-Moretti learned, through an article in Point of June 2020, that the PNF had his detailed telephone bills and those of other colleagues examined. Acquittator – as he was nicknamed – then denounced in the media a “barbouzard investigation” and filed a complaint for violation of private life. The Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, launches an “operational inspection” on the PNF investigation.
“The multiple dysfunctions” of the PNF
A month later, Éric Dupond-Moretti was named, to everyone’s surprise, Keeper of the Seals. It is therefore he who receives the conclusions of the inspection. It does not point to any disciplinary fault but notes a certain number of dysfunctions within the PNF. The Minister of Justice, on the “recommendation” of his administration, nevertheless ordered an administrative investigation against three PNF magistrates to look for possible individual failings. All will be cleared of any disciplinary misconduct. “What consequences has this investigation had on your life? » asks President Pauthe to Patrice Amar. “It’s a humanly interesting experience. There are many people who turn their backs on you, others who prove to be valuable people. You find yourself very alone,” replies the witness. “But I’m not a baby seal either, so I fought. »
Did the Minister of Justice order this administrative investigation to take revenge on the PNF magistrates? His lawyer assures on the contrary that “the multiple dysfunctions” noted during the operational investigation “are perceived by the people who receive this report as potentially meriting an administrative investigation to explore these elements”. Me Laffont also observes that the witness had denounced, to the general prosecutor at the Paris Court of Appeal, Catherine Champrenault, the “serious disciplinary breaches” of his own superior, Eliane Houlette. “Following that, you are no longer subject to rating and you left the PNF to go to the court of appeal,” observes the lawyer for the Minister of Justice, as if to show that everything was not wrong. so idyllic at the PNF.
“It’s very simple, the minister avenged the lawyer”
It is then the turn of Patrice Amar’s “pair”, Ulrika Weiss-Delaunay, to take the stand. The 54-year-old magistrate still has in her throat the press release from the Chancellery announcing the opening of an administrative investigation against herself, her colleague, and their superior. “We are releasing our three names to the press. It was a building collapsing on my head at that moment,” she says. “It was truly an ordeal. For the weeks following the release, I was unable to do anything. I was like a zombie, that’s what my kids said. » Three years later, she is certain: “In this case, it’s very simple, the minister avenged the lawyer. » And this trial, she told the judges, “it deals with issues which are much higher than my person, and which you are responsible today for defending”.
Around 6:30 p.m., Éric Dupond-Moretti asks to speak. The court has just finished with the testimony of Catherine Champrenault. The former criminal lawyer, accustomed to assize courts, stands up, grabs the microphone handed out by the bailiff and addresses the former attorney general at the Paris Court of Appeal, now retired. “The two of us are not true love. » In a few sentences, the defendant implies that she could not digest that a lawyer became Minister of Justice. He gets agitated, regains his thundering lawyer accents, brandishes an article from Paris Match published before the distribution of the famous press release, and in which we find the names of magistrates targeted by the administrative investigation. Then he concludes by telling the former magistrate: “I do not accept your lessons. »