Jean-Christophe Lagarde lost his seat in the French parliament in June and is now in custody.

Lagarde is president of the center party UDI, which is part of Macron's coalition.

Until his election to the National Assembly in 2017, he served as mayor of Drancy in the northern banlieue of Paris, in the Saint-Denis department.

His wife replaced him in the town hall.

Juerg Altwegg

Freelance writer in the feuilleton.

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Lagarde lost the parliamentary election to Raquel Garrido.

She represents the left-green alliance "Nupes".

Her husband Alexis Corbière is also a member of the National Assembly.

As soon as the election was over, Le Point magazine ran an article accusing the two left-wing icons of employing an illegal immigrant as a cleaning lady – without a tax card, of course.

The woman exists, but she has nothing to do with the story.

All allegations turned out to be unfounded.

Le Point deleted the article and fired its reporter Aziz Zemouri (FAZ July 7).

An invisible witness

Since then there have been complaints from all sides.

Reporter Zemouri has sued Lagarde and Noam Anouar.

Anouar was an agent of the domestic secret service Renseignement Généraux.

He was fired for disciplinary reasons – and hired by Lagarde.

Anouar told the journalist Zemouri the - fabricated - story.

The passport and identity of the unsuspecting woman were used.

Zemouri was able to chat with her on Whatsapp.

News reports about exploitation by her employers were riddled with errors.

The reporter never saw his witness - she was afraid of being expelled from the country.

She gave him a few details for him to verify.

The address seemed correct.

The reporter found her supposed apartment, her name was on the mailbox.

But she had never lived there.

However, Rudy Succar had an apartment in this house.

He was a Lagarde driver.

It was "pure coincidence," Succar told police.

He was also taken into custody.

The evidence points to Lagarde as the client of the fake story with Anouar and Succar as his helpers.

Lagarde has one motive: to force Raquel Garrido's resignation in the desperate hope that a new election will win him back the seat.

"Libération" now "followed the trail of the driver" Succar and unearthed an even more frightening dimension of the story.

A TV journalist says Succar intimidated and watched him while he was researching Lagarde.

When the journalist met with the lawyer Brigitte Kadri, she received a call.

She had informed the politician Lagarde that several of her clients could be involved in the attack on "Charlie Hebdo" and the attacks of November 13, 2015.

She asked him to pass this on to those in charge and requested police protection.

The caller told her that they would be taken care of and protected.

He called himself "Steve" and referred to "our mutual friend" Lagarde.

In the interests of her safety, however, she should not tell the reporter anything.

What happened?

Kadri's clients have never been bothered.

She asked and was put off: clarifications were missing.

Kadri feared for her life.

She left Saint-Denis and gave up her job.

She recently realized who "Steve" was: Rudy Succar.

Succar and Lagarde are in custody.

Lagarde is now suspected of not only manipulating a journalist, but also making deals with terrorists.