The new head of the Federal Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), does not have to fear an indictment of a “prohibited communication of court hearings” through a Twitter post. As the Berlin public prosecutor’s office confirmed to the Tagespiegel, the preliminary proceedings against him were temporarily suspended last Monday against a monetary requirement of 5000 euros. Schmidt immediately paid the requested amount, half of which is now being transferred to two charitable organizations. With the receipt of the money there, the proceedings will finally be discontinued.
Schmidt thought his tweet was necessary, as he explained on Twitter
Schmidt previously served as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance. After the controversial searches by the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office in the ministry shortly before the federal election, the politician published excerpts from the court ruling on his Twitter account. The prosecutors in Osnabrück then initiated proceedings under Section 353d of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the publication of official documents from ongoing criminal proceedings. The case was handed over to the Berlin judiciary, which also affirmed an initial suspicion.
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With his tweet, Schmidt wanted to prove existing discrepancies between the court order and public prosecutor’s statements. He apparently assumed the searches were were politically motivated, to harm the then SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It was “necessary that the public can form its own picture of the facts,” he said on Twitter at the time. With regard to his own criminal proceedings, he was “confident that the allegations can be quickly cleared up.”
The judiciary was not to be convinced
Apparently Schmidt was unable to convince the judiciary with this argument. In the past few days, his lawyer is said to have tried to end the proceedings as quickly as possible with a view to the government post. It is not known whether Schmidt will stick to the view he expressed at the time. The Ministry of Finance leaves inquiries about this unanswered.
The prosecution further explained that the proceedings under Section 153a of the Code of Criminal Procedure were discontinued, as usual, with the consent of the court and the accused. Refraining from the persecution for triviality appeared to be out of the question.
Had Schmidt refused, he would have been punished
If Schmidt had refused to accept the “deal”, a penalty order or an indictment would have threatened. For prominent suspects in particular, agreeing to a monetary requirement is the preferred solution in such cases. The presumption of innocence continues to apply to those affected. On the other hand, the allegations have not been eliminated, as Schmidt had hoped in September.
The appointment as “Federal Minister for Special Tasks” and Head of the Federal Chancellery would have been legally possible despite the ongoing investigation. The Chancellery confirmed this at the request of the Tagesspiegel. Schmidt would then, however, have been the first member of a federal government to take up a ministerial office under these circumstances.
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