Arrived at Place Vendôme in July 2020, the Minister of Justice is suspected of having taken advantage of his position to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had had trouble in two cases when he was a lawyer.

The magistrates of the commission of instruction of the CJR, the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and judge ministers for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions, closed on Friday the judicial investigation opened in 2021, according to the general prosecutor's office near the Court of Cassation.

The public prosecutor now has three months to submit its submissions, while defense lawyers have an additional month to make observations.

Eric Dupond-Moretti has been indicted for illegal taking of interest since July 2021, a first for a Keeper of the Seals.

The magistrates of the commission of instruction of the CJR, whom the Minister of Justice tried in vain to challenge, will then decide on the orientation to be given: either to dismiss the case, or to dismiss Eric Dupond-Moretti - to be judged - before the court formation of the CJR composed of three magistrates and twelve parliamentarians.

"Normal Suite"

“This end of information notice is the normal continuation of the procedure, after the last exchanges between the minister and the investigating committee”, reacted to AFP Mes Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain, lawyers for the Keeper of the Seals .

“The end of this phase finally allows the examination by the Court of Cassation of all the defenses raised since the start of the procedure”, they underlined.

The defense of the minister has filed several appeals, in particular to have the indictment canceled and to request the hearing of Attorney General François Molins, refused by the magistrates of the CJR in August and then on appeal in September.

These appeals have not yet been considered.

The Attorney General of the Court of Cassation François Molins, January 10, 2022 in Paris Ludovic MARIN AFP / Archives

Complaints from magistrates' unions and the anticorruption association Anticor, denouncing two situations of conflict of interest since his arrival at the Chancellery in the summer of 2020, had caused the opening of a judicial investigation.

The first file concerns the administrative investigation he ordered in September 2020 against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) who had had his detailed telephone bills peeled ("fadettes") when he was still a star of the bar.

In the second case, he is accused of having instituted administrative proceedings against a former investigating judge seconded to Monaco, Edouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his ex-clients and whose methods he had criticized. cowboy".

Eric Dupond-Moretti has always insisted that he had only "follow the recommendations" of his administration.

New complaint

Summoned in March and early April by the magistrates of the CJR to be re-examined on each of the two files, he refused to answer their questions.

"Everything in the conduct of your information demonstrates your determination not to get to the truth on allegations that you have taken for granted from the outset, but to smear the reputation of a former lawyer whose only trial you are fueling which interests you, that of his illegitimacy to occupy the functions of Keeper of the Seals", he justified in a letter which he read to them in March and of which AFP then obtained a copy.

Chantal Arens, the president of the Court of Cassation, had "strongly regretted" these remarks and had then "recalled" the Keeper of the Seals to his role of "guarantor of the independence of justice".

At the end of March, the majority union among magistrates filed a new complaint against Eric Dupond-Moretti, accusing him of having taken advantage of his duties as Minister of Justice to demand accountability for the management of a magistrate while a " serious incident" had opposed them when he was a lawyer.

© 2022 AFP