Justice minister and Macron’s chief of staff and right-hand man are accused of “conflict of interest”
French President Emmanuel Macron faces a credibility crisis within his government after his justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, and his right-hand man and chief of staff, Alexis Kohler, have been implicated in two corruption cases. In particular, they are accused of ‘conflict of interest’.
Dupond-Moretti is accused of using his position to allegedly settle scores with magistrates with whom he had clashed in the past when he was a famous criminal defense attorney. He therefore becomes the first Minister of Justice to be prosecuted in the course of his duties in the Fifth Republic.
The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only one with jurisdiction to judge members of the French government, will rule in the Dupond-Moretti case, which denies the crimes and has no intention of resigning. His lawyers have appealed to try and prevent him from sitting on the bench. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison, the payment of a €500,000 fine and a sentence of inadmissibility.
The two main unions of French judges – the Union of Magistrates (USM) and the Syndicate of the Magistracy (SM) – filed a complaint against Dupond-Moretti in December 2020, which also included the anti-corruption association Anticor. They accuse the minister of ‘abusing his functions’. They believe he used his position “for personal purposes” by initiating disciplinary proceedings against magistrates who had handled cases that affected him or his clients personally.
The head of justice is credited with ordering in September 2020 the opening of an administrative file against three magistrates of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office of Finance. They had ordered a review of the call logs of a dozen lawyers, including the minister himself, in connection with a case of influence of influence in which former President Nicolas Sarkozy was being tried.
Dupond-Moretti, one of the French government’s strongmen, is also accused of opening administrative proceedings against an investigating judge who accused one of his clients in Monaco when he was a lawyer. The ‘Guardian of the Seals’, as the Minister of Justice in France is also called, in turn accuses the magistrates’ unions of “political maneuvers” to harm him.
He was appointed justice minister by Macron in July 2020. Before that, he had been a media crime lawyer. His appointment, which was applauded by his professional colleagues, was regarded by the magistrates as “a declaration of war”, whom he often insulted when he was shy.
The “ogre of justice”, as the press calls him, defended when he was a lawyer, alleged murderers, corrupt people, the football player Karim Bezema, controversial businessmen such as Bernard Tapie, the king of Morocco Mohamed VI and the brother of the terrorist Mohamed Mera , among others. He was also part of the international defense team for Wikileaks activist Julian Assange.
To the scandal surrounding Dupond-Moretti, one of the strongmen of the French government and appointed Justice Minister by Macron in July 2020, the formal prosecution of Kohler was added yesterday. The general secretary of the Elysee has been charged by the National Prosecutor’s Office of Financial Crimes with a conflict of interest arising from his alleged ties to Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC.
Source: La Verdad
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