In 1945, Moretti had an important role in the capture, detention and execution of Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci.

[5] The negotiations ended in an agreement: the Germans could continue, on condition that they surrender the fascist troops following them, at the next checkpoint in Dongo, a few kilometers away.

Among those captured, the partisan Urbano Lazzaro recognized Benito Mussolini, whose entourage included Clara Petacci and six ministers of the Italian Social Republic, as well as a number of other figures.

[7][8][9] It was largely confirmed by an account provided by Aldo Lampredi[10] and the classical narrative of the story was set out in books written in the 1960s by Bellini delle Stelle and Urbano Lazzaro, and the journalist Franco Baldini.

[12][13] On arrival in Dongo, they met Bellini delle Stelle, who was the local partisan commander, to arrange for Mussolini to be handed over to them.

[12][14] In the afternoon, Audisio, with other partisans, including Michele Moretti and Aldo Lampredi, drove to the De Maria family's farmhouse to collect Mussolini and Petacci.

He claimed that on 28 April he convened a "war tribunal" in Dongo comprising Lampredi, Bellini delle Stelle, Michele Moretti and Lazzaro with himself as president.

[22] However, the lack of a judge or a Commissario di Guerra (required by the ordinance to be present) casts doubt on this assertion.

[23][note 1] In his 1993 book Dongo: half a century of lies, the partisan leader Urbano Lazzaro repeated a claim he had made earlier that Luigi Longo and not Audisio, was "Colonnello Valerio".

[25][26][27] Moretti married fellow Italian partisan Teresa Tettamanti, also known by the nom de guerre "Ada Piffaretti" on 14 October 1936.