Three of the magistrates targeted by dubious administrative investigations at the heart of the case of illegal taking of interests by Éric Dupond-Moretti asked by the voices of their lawyers to testify during the trial of the Keeper of the Seals.
Referred to the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the minister would have taken advantage of his function as minister to settle accounts with four magistrates, whom he had opposed in his former life as a lawyer. Maîtres Marie Lessieu and François Saint-Pierre, lawyers for three of them, asked in a letter on Tuesday to Rémy Heitz, public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, that their clients, Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, Patrice Amar and Édouard Levrault be heard as witnesses.
Testimonies “essential to the manifestation of the truth”
These magistrates “are indeed the victims of the offenses of illegal taking of interests of which Éric Dupond-Moretti is accused” and their testimonies are “essential to the manifestation of the truth”. However, the two lawyers recall, the law “prohibits victims of offenses committed by a minister from becoming a civil party at the hearing”. Victims will only be able to seek damages in court.
Two administrative investigations against four magistrates earned the Keeper of the Seals a referral to the CJR, the only body authorized to judge members of the government for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.
Dupond-Moretti claims to have only “followed the recommendations”
The first, in September 2020, targeted Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss and Patrice Amar, prosecutors at the financial prosecutor’s office, and their leader, Eliane Houlette.
Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss and Patrice Amar had had the detailed telephone bills (fadettes) of Éric Dupond-Moretti, then a lawyer, go through to flush out a possible mole who would have informed ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy that he was being tapped in a corruption case. “Éric Dupond-Moretti had filed a complaint against them and had threatened them with ”kicking in the anthill””, underline Mes Lessieu and Saint-Pierre.
The second concerned Édouard Levrault, a former investigating judge seconded to Monaco, who had indicted one of Me Dupond-Moretti’s clients. The latter had criticized “cowboy” methods.
Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss was ultimately not prosecuted. Eliane Houlette, Patrice Amar and Edouard Levrault had been exonerated by the Superior Council of the Judiciary. In its decisions, the disciplinary body of the magistrates had considered that the minister “had found himself in an objective situation of conflict of interest”, recall the two lawyers.
Éric Dupond-Moretti repeated during the procedure that he had only “followed the recommendations of his administration” by launching these administrative investigations.