His mother's parents taught in Cernăuți until 1940, when the area was occupied by Soviet troops, and they fled to near Rădăuți–a background Chiuariu cites as a motivation for measures he took while Justice Minister to simplify procedures for members of the Romanian diaspora to regain citizenship.

[10][11] 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 (86,000 sq ft) parcel of public land on Calea Victoriei in central Bucharest into the private control of Poșta Română; a 300-room hotel was planned.

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 Țuluș, 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.

[14][15] At the end of June, Chiuariu sent a letter to the European Commission, then finalising a country report on Romania, asking it to eliminate laudatory passages regarding DNA's work; this too was rejected.

[16] In October, he initiated an emergency decree effectively blocking criminal investigations into eight current and former ministers, including himself—the committee that then advised the president on the matter was replaced with another.

The following month, Băsescu publicly asked for his resignation, and was poised to suspend Chiuariu and approve a criminal investigation against him, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court allowing him to do so without recourse to any committee.

[22] He has remained a critic of the president, for instance accusing him of responsibility for the "paralysis" in the country's judicial system in September 2009,[23] after magistrates effectively went on strike to protest against the reduction of their salaries by 50–60%.

[26] In January 2014, together with former ministerial colleague Zsolt Nagy, he was convicted by the High Court of Cassation and Justice in a case involving a building on Calea Victoriei belonging to Poșta Română.

[27] In January 2015, he was removed from the PNL, formally because of non-payment of dues but unofficially because of his involvement in corruption cases;[28] the following month, he also lost his seat on the judiciary committee.