Since December 2007, elected as such immediately after his resignation as Justice Minister, he has been adjunct general secretary of the PNL, and became its spokesman in September 2008. This was an interim assignment for the parliamentary election; in January 2009, he was replaced on a permanent basis by Bogdan Olteanu. He held a number of positions within the Romanian Government between 2005 and 2008, when the PNL held the office of Prime Minister. From 2005 to 2007, he was a member in the council for coordinating implementation of the government's National Anti-corruption Strategy. Also, from January 2005 to April 2007, he was a state secretary at the prime minister's chancellery, as head of the government's anti-fraud department. From 2005 to 2006, he was president of the inter-ministerial commission meant to finalise a uniform system for paying civil servants' salaries. In April 2007, Chiuariu was named Justice Minister following Tăriceanu's dismissal of Monica Macovei; the prime minister had been feuding for some time with her and with President Traian Băsescu, a strong Macovei supporter. Chiuariu's appointment was viewed by some with suspicion; multiple press reports identified him as a former lawyer of "local baron" Relu Fenechiu, although Chiuariu denied it. His term in office was marked by controversy almost from the start. He began by dismissing Macovei's state secretaries and advisers, among whom judges were well represented, replacing them for the most part with Iaşi lawyers, some of whom had no experience as judges. Less than a month after his investiture, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) opened a case against him, alleging he had illegally consented to a governmental decision transferring an over-8,000 m2 parcel of public land on Calea Victoriei in central Bucharest into the private control of Poşta Română; a 300-room hotel was planned. The decision reputedly came in order to cover up ties forged illegally in 2005 between Poşta Română and a private real estate group. One civil servant had resigned rather than approve the transfer, which was then done by a Chiuariu aide; anonymous Justice Ministry employees charged that Tăriceanu had asked the same of Macovei but been turned down multiple times. In May, he asked the Supreme Council of Magistracy (CSM) to dismiss Doru Ţuluş, a DNA prosecutor and head of the section investigating his own case; this stirred loud protests within the judicial system, including inside Chiuariu's ministry, and was rejected in October.