He joined the administration as secretary of Émile Ollivier, Commissioner General of the Provisional Government in Bouches-du-Rhône.

[2][a] Levert was prefect at Algiers from October 1859 to December 1860, when he was replaced by Nicolas Mercier-Lacombe(fr).

[3] He succeeded Senator Charlemagne de Maupas as prefect of Bouches-du-Rhone at Marseille in 1866 at a time of growing republican agitation.

[7] During the revolution of 4 September 1870 Levert tried to resist a crowd of 5,000 people who invaded the prefecture in Marseille.

[3] After the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the conclusion of peace Levert returned to France and ran for election to the National Assembly in a by-election in Pas-de-Calais on 7 January 1872 to succeed General Louis Faidherbe, who had resigned.

He continued to follow a Bonapartist line, did little to support the government during the 16 May 1877 crisis, and abstained from the vote of no confidence against the Broglie-Fourtou cabinet.

He opposed the internal and external policies of the cabinets of Léon Gambetta and Jules Ferry and voted against the Tonkin credits.

On 4 October 1885 he was elected on the conservative list of Pas-de-Calais and continued to side with the right-wing of the Bonapartist group.

He voted against reinstatement of the district poll on 11 February 1889, for indefinite postponement of revision of the Constitution, against the prosecution of three members of the Ligue des Patriotes, against the draft Lisbonne law restricting freedom of the press and against prosecution of General Boulanger.