A special court has cleared France’s justice minister of conflict of interest, ruling he was not guilty of having used his office to settle personal scores. Once a high-profile lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti was accused of abusing his position to order probes targeting magistrates who investigated him, his friends and his former clients. Wednesday’s ruling marked a victory for Dupond-Moretti, who had denied wrongdoing and refused to resign. The proceedings in a court for alleged wrongdoing by the government marked the first time in modern France that a serving government minister was put on trial for actions taken in the post, according to legal historians.
