Paris (AFP)

The Paris attorney general assured Thursday that she had received "no instruction from the executive power" to influence the Fillon affair, after remarks by the ex-chief of the national financial parquet Eliane Houlette which have aroused accusations of " instrumentalization "of justice.

"In the Fillon case, as in all other files under my hierarchical control, I did not receive any instructions from the Directorate of Criminal Affairs and Pardons (DACG), no instructions from the executive power and (...) I did not "I never relayed a request from the Minister of Justice or the executive to influence a procedure," said Catherine Champrenault before the National Assembly's commission of inquiry on the independence of the judiciary.

She was heard for the second time by the deputies, Mrs. Houlette having sown the disorder on June 10 by evoking, before this same commission, the "very close control" that would have exercised the general prosecutor's office, its direct supervisory authority, in the conduct of investigations.

Ms. Houlette had in particular mentioned "requests for rapid transmission" of the investigative acts or the hearings and revealed that she had been summoned by the public prosecutor's office, who argued that the investigation should be entrusted to an investigating judge.

"We should not give in to the ease of rewriting history," said Ms. Champrenault.

"The monitoring of public action by the Attorney General, far from being pressure, constitutes the normal, institutional, legal and even ethical mode of operation for all the magistrates of the public prosecutor's office," she explained. .

Recalling the context of the opening of the preliminary inquiry into Mr. Fillon on January 25, 2017, "three months before the presidential election", the Attorney General pointed out that the acts of investigation were "carried out ".

"The intensity of the information feedback (from the PNF to the public prosecutor's office, editor's note) was the only measure of the intensity of the acts carried out" which were "announced or commented on in the press", he said. she declared.

According to Ms. Champrenault, in this case, the DACG made "two requests" aimed at "the results of the acts of investigation but never" before. In addition, "nine transmissions" were "sent directly" by the PNF to the general prosecutor's office, "spontaneously", while the general prosecutor's office made "four requests for information".

"I know they would like to make me say that we opened an information to resign Mr. Fillon," continued Ms. Champrenault. "But his defense asked for an opening of judicial information", from "February 9," she observed.

An investigating judge was finally seized on February 24.

Given favorite in the presidential election, the cantor of the conservative right had been eliminated in the first round after a campaign undermined by this affair.

"This case deserved that an investigating judge, more independent by virtue of his status, be seized," she said.

© 2020 AFP