Sarkozy’s Burner Phone, a Monaco Job and a Corruption Trial
- French investigators wiretapped ex-president’s secret phone
- Sarkozy said he’d help a court official get a job for a favor
Photographer: Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP/Getty Images
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Nicolas Sarkozy’s corruption trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Paris over allegations he promised to help an official land a prestigious Monaco court job in exchange for covert aid in a legal fight to stop investigators using the former French president’s diaries.
The much-awaited trial includes evidence prosecutors obtained by wiretapping Sarkozy’s calls on so-called burner phones with his then-lawyer, who acted as a go-between, according to the indictment. It centers on how Sarkozy may have abused his power by coaxing the senior legal official, known as an avocat général, to use his own connections with judicial colleagues to influence the outcome of the diaries case.