French justice minister in court for alleged conflict of interest

PARIS: France's controversial justice minister arrived in court on Friday for questioning in an unusual case against a serving cabinet member that could lead to charges over alleged conflict of interest.
Eric Dupond Moretti, a 60-year-old former star lawyer, was recruited by President Emmanuel Macron just a year ago, swapping his life as one of the country's most famous criminal lawyers for a career in politics.
Now he stands accused of taking advantage of his position as minister to settle scores with opponents from his legal career.
"The justice minister is not above the law, but he is not beneath it either," Dupond-Moretti told journalists as he arrived at the Law Court of the Republic in central Paris.
The court, composed of judges, senators, and MPs, hears cases of alleged wrongdoing by serving ministers.
Investigators spent 15 hours searching Dupond-Moretti's office at the justice ministry on July 1 for evidence, and he will be questioned Friday by magistrates who will decide whether to press charges.
The minister's aides have described him as "serene and determined to explain himself".
The accusations relate to inquiries into three judges who ordered police in 2014 to pore through the phone records of dozens of lawyers and magistrates, including Dupond-Moretti, as part of an investigation into former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The judiciary accused Dupond Moretti of a witch-hunt.
He denied the allegations, saying he was merely acting on the recommendations of his staff to investigate possible failings on the part of the magistrates who oversaw the seizures of the phone records.
If Dupond-Moretti is charged with conflict of interest by a person in a position of public authority, Macron is likely to face calls from the opposition to sack him.
But his supporters say he is the target of a witch hunt by the three judges from the Financial Prosecutor's Office, who were furious over the administrative inquiries carried out on the minister's watch.
Two of the lawmakers who sit on the Law Court, one from Macron's party and the other from the right-wing The Republicans (LR), resigned from the court to protest Dupond-Moretti's questioning.
Dupond-Moretti would not be the first member of Macron's top team to be charged with an offence.
Shortly after his election in 2017 Macron dismissed his close aide Richard Ferrand from his post as minister for territorial cohesion after he was placed under investigation over claims he favoured his wife in a lucrative property deal with a public health insurance fund.
Ferrand later made a comeback in a more senior role as parliament speaker a job he kept after being charged with conflict of interest.
One cabinet member told AFP she was not certain that the combative Dupond-Moretti, famous for his record of getting his clients acquitted, could survive the scandal if he was charged.
"It's complicated, especially when you're justice minister," she said.
Dupond-Moretti goes into Friday's court hearing weakened by recent revelations that he failed to declare 300,000 euros ($350,000) in royalties he earned from a one-man show in which he starred while still a lawyer.
Last week he admitted to making a "mistake" on his tax form, and his aides say he has since settled the bill arising from the royalties on his one-man theatre production entitled "Eric Dupond-Moretti to the Bar".
On the electoral front, too, he suffered a major setback when he stood for office for the first time in last month's regional and departmental elections, winning less than 10 percent of the vote.