The Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) will say on Wednesday, October 19 whether it is necessary to sanction the former financial prosecutor Éliane Houlette and her former deputy Patrice Amar in the context of procedures related to the case of "fadettes" and which are worth to their initiator, Éric Dupond-Moretti, to be sent back to the CJR.
At the end of their respective disciplinary hearings before the CSM, no sanction had been requested by the executive against Éliane Houlette, retired since mid-2019, and Patrice Amar, deputy prosecutor of the PNF, who were implicated for possible "
failures
".
Disavowal
With regard to public prosecutors, the CSM will only issue a simple opinion on Wednesday and any sanctions can only be pronounced by the executive.
With a small particularity: such a decision would be the responsibility of the Prime Minister and not of the Keeper of the Seals, who was divested, at the end of 2020, of this entire procedure to avoid conflicts of interest.
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If the body cleared these two magistrates experienced in sensitive investigations, this would still constitute a disavowal for Éric Dupond-Moretti who was at the origin of these administrative proceedings shortly after his entry into government in July 2020.
He reproached these magistrates for conducting a controversial investigation carried out on the sidelines of the so-called “
Bismuth
” corruption case involving Nicolas Sarkozy, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and a senior magistrate, and having led to their conviction.
All three have appealed and are due for retrial at the end of the year.
Complaint filed
This investigation, which was closed without further action, aimed to flush out a possible mole who could have informed the former head of state that he was being wiretapped.
The investigations had led to the peeling of telephone records (the “
fadettes
”) of tenors of the bar, including Éric Dupond-Moretti who had denounced “
methods of spooks
” shortly before his entry into government.
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Once Keeper of the Seals, he had ordered proceedings against three PNF magistrates and the former Monaco investigating judge Édouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his former clients and whose "cow-handling" methods he had denounced
. boy
”.
Accusing Éric Dupond-Moretti of having used his ministerial functions to settle scores linked to his past as a lawyer, the two main magistrate unions and the Anticor association had filed a complaint against him at the end of 2020, triggering the opening of investigation.
The minister was then indicted and the Court of Justice of the Republic ordered, on October 3, that he be tried for “
illegal taking of interests
”.
An appeal was lodged against this decision and Éric Dupond-Moretti affirmed that his resignation was not “
on the agenda
”.
"Uproar"
During her appearance in September before the CSM, Éliane Houlette had vigorously contested the grievances related to her five years at the head of the PNF (2014-2019) and had attributed this procedure to the "
tumult
" organized by the Keeper of the Seals and to her "
detestation
" of the PNF.
In addition to the investigation of the "
fadettes
", he was accused of his mode of management of the PNF and two potential situations of conflicts of interest.
"
This is not the trial of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office here
", had hammered, on behalf of the executive, the director of judicial services Paul Huber, adding that this jurisdiction, created in 2014, had "
proved its worth
".
"Political Revenge"
Patrice Amar had, in particular, appeared for having, in a letter sent in January 2019 to the Attorney General of Paris, criticized in terms "
deliberately offensive
" his ex-boss Eliane Houlette.
During the hearing, his supporters had denounced “
political revenge
” by the Minister of Justice, intended to “
destabilize the PNF
”.
Read alsoGuillaume Tabard: “Dupond-Moretti: deferred judicial sanction, anticipated political sanction?”
The two hearings, which were held a few days apart, had quickly turned to the settlement of scores at a distance between the deputy prosecutor of the PNF and his former head, whose disputes were old.
For the time being, the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Minister have not prospered.
Another PNF magistrate was cleared without having to appear, while Judge Levrault was cleared by the CSM, who noted that the Keeper of the Seals had placed himself in an "
objective situation of conflict of interest
".