The former Minister of Justice provided a confidential note to Thierry Solère, deputy for Hauts-de-Seine, during the interval between the two rounds of the presidential election.
Thierry Solère, deputy of Hauts-de-Seine rallied to the Republic on the move (LRM) and former quaestor of the National Assembly, will be able to prepare his defense well in the preliminary investigation – and therefore normally secret – which targets him for fraud tax, money laundering, corruption, influence peddling and concealment of misuse of corporate assets. Even though he has still not been heard by the police, he already knows many details of the possible offenses he is accused of.
And that, as revealed on Wednesday, December 13 Le Canard enchaîné, thanks to the former Minister of Justice, Jean-Jacques Urvoas. The latter would have taken advantage of the powers linked to his function between the two rounds of the presidential election to request a summary of the investigation from the Directorate of Criminal Affairs and Pardons (DACG) before transmitting it to Mr. Solère.
The two men had however taken precautions by communicating by encrypted Telegram messaging, says the satirical weekly. But Thierry Solère did not see fit to erase the message transmitted by Mr. Urvoas and the police officers of the central office for the fight against corruption and financial and tax offenses (OCCLLIFF) came across it during a search. home at the end of June.
This is unfortunate for Mr. Urvoas, who could be prosecuted before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) as a former minister, for violation of professional secrecy, or even obstruction of the exercise of justice.
In a press release, Wednesday afternoon, the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation announced that he had seized the CJR “for opinion […] of facts likely to be qualified as a breach of professional secrecy, committed by Mr. Jean-Jacques Urvoas, in the exercise of his functions as Keeper of the Seals”.
Lire: Thierry Solère, spokesperson for François Fillon, suspected of tax evasion
Possible ministerial career
At the time, Thierry Solère sensed – wrongly – that he was going to join the government, in particular because of his proximity to the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe. In order to ensure that the preliminary investigation conducted by the Nanterre prosecutor's office since September 6, 2016 will not thwart a possible ministerial career, he speaks about it to Mr. Urvoas, then Minister of Justice on departure.
according to Le Chained duck, it is therefore at his request that the socialist would have gone to probe his services to find out more. The Nanterre public prosecutor's office is required to report to the Versailles public prosecutor's office, which is itself forced to send the information back to the DACG. To justify the expected immediacy of the response, the DACG specifies that this is a request from the cabinet. The note finally lands, fault understood and almost without delay, in the minister's office.
This Wednesday, in a press release, the Nanterre prosecution confirmed that elements "likely to engage the criminal liability of Jean-Jacques Urvoas" had been found during a search and then transmitted on December 5 to the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation.
Asked by Le Chained duck, Thierry Solère's lawyers assured that the note contained nothing more than what the press had already revealed. Contacted by Le Monde, Mr. Solère declined to comment. For his part, Jean-Jacques Urvoas did not respond to requests from the World.
Friendly correspondence
A few days after the Constitutional Council decided to revalidate the principle, this case once again raises the question of the relevance of the subordination of the prosecution to the Keeper of the Seals. It also reveals that the feedback of information to the minister's office in political and financial affairs remains topical.
During the exploitation of Thierry Solère's telephone, the police also discovered that he had a friendly correspondence with Roger Le Loire, former dean of the investigating judges at the Paris tribunal de grande instance, now a judge of training at Nanterre. During their discussions, the magistrate inquired about a possible LR investiture that he wanted to run for in the perspective of the legislative elections. Information denied at the time by the two interested parties. Asked, Mr. Le Loire did not respond.
Other exchanges in which the case of Mr. Solère would not, however, be mentioned, to which Mr. Le Loire does not have access in any case, justified that this section be transmitted to the Paris public prosecutor's office, which must decide whether this justifies the opening of an investigation. The latter seized the brigade for the repression of personal crime (BRDP) in order to determine whether these exchanges are likely to take on a criminal qualification.
The initial investigation targeting Mr. Solère is continuing despite everything. In addition to a tax component, in which he is suspected of having failed to declare part of his income between 2010 and 2013, the investigators suspect possible shortcomings in his declaration of interest made to the High Authority on the transparency of public life (HATVP). They also wonder about influence peddling in the context of the contracts entered into by Mr. Solère before and during his mandate as a deputy with companies specializing in the treatment of waste.
