Former Minister of Justice Rachida Dati, soon to be tried for corruption, has asked to rejoin the judiciary, which will be done after the opinion of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, the Ministry of Justice announced on Friday, confirming information from Nouvel Obs. Defeated in the municipal elections in Paris in March, the current LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement, aged 60, obtained a position as “first substitute for the central administration of justice” within the Chancellery, according to Nouvel Obs.
The announcement of this reinstatement caused a reaction on the left on Saturday. “The corruption of the system, yet another case: Rachida Dati will have a trial for corruption this fall... and yet, Gérald Darmanin is reinstating her in the judiciary. It's not individual here, not accidental. But structural. Just like Sarkozy condemned for crime against the Nation and yet received at the Elysée by Emmanuel Macron,” MP François Ruffin reacted on X.
As for the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure, he considered that “the exemplary Republic is the one which does not allow a defendant to join the judiciary the day before her trial for corruption”.
Rachida Dati must appear from September 16 to 28 before the Paris Criminal Court, notably for corruption and passive influence peddling. She is accused of an alleged corruption pact and of illegally lobbying in the European Parliament, where she served as an elected official from 2009 to 2019, on behalf of Renault and its then boss Carlos Ghosn, now on the run in Lebanon and also referred to court. Between 2009 and 2013, Rachida Dati received 900,000 euros under a flat-rate lawyer remuneration agreement. The defendant maintains that she only did completely legal work as a lawyer. She faces ten years of imprisonment and five years of ineligibility.
“Ms. Dati has requested her reinstatement as a magistrate, as she has the right, and will soon be assigned as part of the classic transparency procedure for magistrates”, the appointment procedure in this body, “that is to say after the opinion of the CSM which the Minister of Justice will follow”, indicated the Chancellery to AFP. The public prosecutors are appointed by the Minister of Justice, after consulting the Superior Council of the Judiciary. This should take place within two weeks to a month, after examining possible appeals from other candidates for this position, explains a magistrate.
“The judicial institution is harshly criticized by political leaders, particularly from the angle of ethics and the responsibility of magistrates, but also on the need to preserve the image of the institution”, but “this reintegration project, a few days before a media criminal trial concerning the person concerned, sends a contradictory message”, reacted to AFP Ludovic Friat, president of the USM, the main magistrates' union. The name of the person responsible appears in other legal files, which are at a less advanced procedural stage.
In May, she was placed under the status of assisted witness in a case related to the one which required her to appear at the end of September, concerning a possible private investigation targeting a couple who had filed a complaint against her in the Renault-Carlos Ghosn case. The status of assisted witness is more favorable than that of indicted witness. Judges are also investigating possible relationships of interest with Azerbaijan and Qatar when she was an MEP, a case which led to Ms. Dati having searches of her homes and her town hall in the 7th arrondissement in mid-December 2025. On the other hand, the financial and anti-corruption brigade (BFAC) of the Parisian judicial police is investigating suspicions of non-declaration of jewelry to the High Authority for the transparency of public life (HATVP), following reports received, notably in June 2025, by the Paris prosecutor's office.
Rachida Dati entered politics in the wake of Nicolas Sarkozy, as his justice advisor at the Ministry of the Interior in 2002. Spokesperson for his victorious campaign and loyal among the faithful, she was appointed Keeper of the Seals in 2007 and carried out emblematic measures, such as minimum sentences or the reform of the judicial map. To the great dismay of part of the right, she returned to the government under Emmanuel Macron who appointed her Minister of Culture in 2024, a position she left a month before the municipal elections.
