The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) closed a complaint from a union of magistrates who accused Eric Dupond-Moretti of having taken advantage of his functions as Minister of Justice to inspect the management of a magistrate, indicated Monday the general prosecutor’s office of the Court of Cassation, confirming information from BFM TV. “The offense was insufficiently characterized,” he said.
The Union of Magistrates (USM, majority) accused the minister of having intervened in “the management of the Cayenne Court of Appeal”, chaired by Marie-Laure Piazza, when a “serious incident” had opposed them in 2016. The Minister of Justice was then a lawyer and Marie-Laure Piazza presided over the Assize Court of Haute-Corse.
According to judicial sources, Éric Dupond-Moretti had notably accused the magistrate of bias during a trial, claiming to have certificates from jurors criticizing his way of conducting the deliberation.
A complaint at the end of March for “illegal taking of interests”
The investigation for “act of intimidation towards a magistrate and violation and concealment of the secrecy of the deliberation” had resulted in a reminder to the law inflicted on Éric Dupond-Moretti, no juror having confirmed his accusations.
The USM had filed a complaint at the end of March for “illegal taking of interests” based on the examination of the situation of the Cayenne Court of Appeal, requested on July 1 by the director of cabinet of the Minister for Inspection. General of Justice (IGJ).
A report was issued in December, and on January 24, the Prime Minister’s office, in charge of Eric Dupond-Moretti’s affairs in connection with his former clients or in which he was involved when he was a lawyer, asked the IGJ the opening of an administrative investigation “into the incidents and behavior of Ms. Piazza”, according to the union.
“Diagnose possible malfunctions”
The situation review, which is a “short-term advisory mission”, aimed to “diagnose possible malfunctions in a service and propose operational solutions”, details the general prosecutor’s office.
This is not an operational inspection or an administrative investigation and the name of Marie-Laure Piazza has “never (been) referred to in the mission”, specifies the general prosecutor’s office. Contacted, one of the attorneys for the Keeper of the Seals declined to comment.
Éric Dupond-Moretti was indicted for illegal taking of interests on July 16, 2021 in a judicial investigation opened after a previous complaint from the USM and the Syndicat de la magistrature (SM, left) in December 2020. He is suspected of having taken advantage of his position to request administrative inquiries into four magistrates.
The CJR, the only one authorized to prosecute members of the government for acts committed in the exercise of their functions, closed its investigations in mid-April.