Superior Council of Magistracy turns ex-chief of national financial prosecutor’s office and his assistant

In September, the prosecution had not claimed any sanctions against Eliane Houlette or against Patrice Amar. In this file, the Keeper of the Seals is indicted for illegal taking of interest.

Le Monde with AFP

The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) laundered, Wednesday, October 19, the former chief of the national financial prosecution, Eliane Houlette, and her current first vice-prosecutor Patrice Amar, in procedures related to the case “Fadettes” which are worth to their initiator, Eric Dupond-Moretti, to be referred to the Court of Justice of the Republic.

In two separate opinions, the CSM considers that these two magistrates, to which the executive reproached different “breaches”, have “committed any disciplinary fault” and that it “there is no need to sanction them . In September, the prosecution had not claimed to sanction neither against Ms. Houlette nor against Mr. Amar. The final decision belongs to the Prime Minister, the Keeper of the Seals having been divel from this file at the end of 2020.

Whatever the outcome of the file, these CSM opinions sound as a new disavowal for Mr. Dupond-Moretti and reaffirm that the Minister was in “an objective situation of conflict of interest” when he launched these prosecution shortly after entering the government in July 2020.

He reproached these magistrates in particular the conduct of an PNF investigation carried out on the sidelines of the so -called “Bismuth” corruption case, involving Nicolas Sarkozy, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and a high magistrate. This investigation, which was classified without follow -up, aimed to flush out a possible taupe having been able to inform the former head of state which he was listening.

The investigations had led to peel telephone statements – the “fadettes” – of tenors of the bar, including Eric Dupond -Moretti, who had denounced “barbouzes methods” shortly before entering the government. Once the Keeper of the Seals, he had ordered prosecution against three PNF magistrates and the former investigating judge of Monaco Edouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his former clients. The judge was also bleached by the CSM.

Accusing Mr. Dupond-Moretti of having used his ministerial functions to settle accounts related to his past as a lawyer, two magistrates unions and the Anticor association had filed a complaint against him at the end of 2020, triggering The opening of a judicial inquiry.

The Minister was then indicted, and the Court of Justice of the Republic ordered, on October 3, that he was tried for illegal interests of interest. . Dupond-Moretti said that his resignation was not “on the agenda”.

“Again, the CSM noted that Mr. Dupond-Moretti was in an objective situation of conflict of interest (…). It is advisable to draw the consequences”, reacted to the AFP the lawyer of M. Amar, M e François Saint-Pierre.

/Media reports.