Prime Minister Jean Castex renewed “all his confidence” in his Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, who was indicted on Friday for possible conflicts of interest with his former activities as a criminal lawyer. Considering that “the acts at the origin of this procedure” fall “within the normal framework of the exercise of the ministerial prerogatives of the Keeper of the Seals”, the Prime Minister asks him to “continue the action of reform and consolidation of means granted to the public service of Justice, ”wrote Matignon in a press release.
Eric Dupond-Moretti is suspected of having taken advantage of his position as minister to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had trouble starting when he was a lawyer, which he refutes. Three magistrates’ unions and the Anticor association denounce situations of conflict of interest in two cases. The first concerns an administrative investigation ordered in September by the Minister of Justice against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) who had his detailed telephone records (“fadettes”) scrutinized when he was still a star in the courtroom.
“Barbouzes’ methods” and a “cowboy”
Vilifying the “methods of barbouzes” of the anti-corruption prosecution, Eric Dupond-Moretti had filed a complaint, before withdrawing it on the evening of his appointment as Keeper of the Seals, July 6, 2020. In the second case, he is accused of Eric Dupond -Moretti for having initiated administrative proceedings against a former investigating judge seconded to Monaco, Edouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his ex-clients and whose “cowboy” methods he had criticized after this magistrate spoke in a report.
These potential conflicts of interest had finally led at the end of October to exclude Eric Dupond-Moretti from the follow-up of his former affairs, now under the control of Matignon. “The opening of an administrative investigation is a common act in the management of an administration. Having no other purpose than to clarify the facts and to verify the existence of possible dysfunctions, it does not in itself have any legal effect on the situation of the interested parties, as established by the case-law of the Council of State ”, argues Matignon.
“It is moreover precisely to prevent any risk of conflict of interest at a time when the question of possible consequences, in particular disciplinary ones, could arise that a decree was issued before the submission of reports to entrust this responsibility to the Premier. Minister ”, recall the services of the Prime Minister.