ATaccused of rape since 2017, the Minister of the Interior should benefit from a dismissal. This is in any case what the Paris prosecutor’s office required, Wednesday, January 12, after a new hearing. The lawyers of Gérald Darmanin, Mare Mathias Chichportich and Pierre-Olivier Sur, announced that they had taken “note of this indictment of dismissal and [attendre] the final decision of the examining magistrate”.
In this highly politically sensitive case, which has already been the subject of long procedural disputes, it is now up to the investigating judge to make her decision on a possible dismissal for the tenant of Place Beauvau. The magistrate had placed the minister under the status of assisted witness in December 2020, before confronting him in March with the complainant, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, for nine hours. The latter could not be reached immediately for comment, nor could her lawyer, Mr.and Yann LeBras.
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“I’m probably a dirty con”
Since a first complaint in 2017, Sophie Patterson-Spatz accuses Gérald Darmanin of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust. In 2009, the complainant contacted the elected official, then project manager in the legal affairs department of the UMP (ancestor of LR), to obtain support when she wanted to have a 2004 conviction for blackmail reviewed. and malicious calls to an ex-companion.
According to her, Gérald Darmanin would have dangled her support from the chancellery via a letter in exchange for sexual favors which she would have accepted, feeling forced to “go to the pan”, according to her expression in front of the investigators. Key exchange of the file, on the night of December 17, 2009, Sophie Patterson-Spatz wrote him this SMS: “Abuse of his position. For me, that’s being a jerk. […] When you know the effort it took me to fuck with you. To take care of my case. “Less than two hours later, Gérald Darmanin replies:” You are right, I am undoubtedly a dirty idiot. How to forgive myself ? “
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The resumption of investigations ordered in June 2020
Two simple complaints from Sophie Patterson-Spatz have already been dismissed, while an investigating judge refused in August 2018 to investigate following a third complaint with civil action. After long procedural disputes, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered in June 2020 the resumption of investigations. This file constituted a political ball and chain for Gérald Darmanin, criticized upon his appointment to the government, in the summer of 2020, by many voices, in particular feminists. He filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation.