Paris (AFP)

Gérald Darmanin rid of a huge political thorn in his side?

The investigating judge in charge of the investigation targeting him for "rape" pronounced the end of the investigations at the beginning of September without putting him under examination, directing the investigation to a dismissal.

In this highly politically sensitive case, which has already been the subject of long procedural disputes, it is now up to the Paris public prosecutor's office, which did not wish to confirm the information, to make its requisitions before the final decision of the judge. 'instruction.

The complainant, Ms. Sophie Patterson-Spatz, can make requests for investigative acts.

Many of his wishes in this area were recently rejected by the judge who leads the investigation, a rejection confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in early September.

"This announcement of the closing of the investigation saddens me. With my new counsel, I am considering new acts which would allow this investigation to be relaunched. Until then, everything we asked for has been refused," he told the AFP the complainant Monday evening, confirming the information from Mediapart.

Since a first complaint in 2017, Ms. Patterson-Spatz has accused Mr. Darmanin of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust.

In 2009, the complainant addressed the elected official, then in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP (ancestor of LR), to obtain support when she wanted to revise a 2004 conviction for blackmail. and malicious calls regarding an ex-boyfriend.

The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, in Ambert (Puy-de-Dôme) on July 22, 2021 Thierry ZOCCOLAN AFP / Archives

According to her, Mr. Darmanin would have dangled his support to the Chancellery via a letter, in exchange for sexual favors that she would have accepted, feeling compelled to "go to the pan", according to her expression in front of the investigators.

Key exchange of the file, on the night of December 17, 2009, Mrs. Patterson-Spatz wrote him this SMS: "To abuse his position. For my part, it is to be a dirty idiot (...). When we know the 'effort it took me to fuck with you. To take care of my case.

Less than two hours later, he replies: "You're right, I'm probably a dirty jerk. How can I be forgiven?"

- "A young man's life" -

She filed a complaint for the first time in June 2017, which was dismissed by the Paris prosecutor's office because the complainant did not respond to invitations from investigators.

In January 2018, an investigation was opened following a new complaint from Ms. Patterson-Spatz.

This is heard three days later.

Mr. Darmanin is summoned to him for a free hearing and confirms having had a sexual relationship with Ms. Patterson-Spatz, but according to him freely consented and at the initiative of the complainant: "There was no consideration".

The investigation is closed less than a month later for "absence of infringement".

In March 2018, the complainant filed a complaint with a civil party and widened her accusations: breach of trust, extortion of sexual consent, fraud of sexual consent, rape, sexual harassment.

An examining magistrate refused the following August to resume investigations, considering the preliminary investigation sufficient to dismiss the charges.

After long procedural disputes, the Paris Court of Appeal contradicted her, ordering in June 2020 the resumption of the investigations into this accusation of rape, considering that the investigating magistrate "could not be based solely on the results of the preliminary investigation" to make a dismissal.

Since the summer of 2020, a new magistrate has taken charge of the case.

It was she who placed Mr. Darmanin witness assisted in this case in mid-December, before confronting the Minister of the Interior and Ms. Patterson-Spatz in March for nine hours.

"You still have to measure what it is to be wrongly accused, of having to explain to your parents what happened because, it's true, I had a young man's life. ", explained Mr. Darmanin in July 2020 to La Voix du Nord.

This file was a political burden for Mr. Darmanin, criticized from his appointment to the government in the summer of 2020 by many voices, especially feminists.

He filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation.

In May 2018, the Paris prosecutor's office dismissed an investigation for "abuse of weakness" against him, opened following a complaint by a woman who accused the Minister of Public Accounts of having forced her into relations sex for housing and employment.

© 2021 AFP