“Since you have these wiretaps, really read them!”, he launched to the three magistrates who retry him in Paris for corruption and influence peddling, alongside Me Herzog and the former general counsel at the Court of Cassation Gilbert Azibert.

Captured in early 2014 on the unofficial "Paul Bismuth" line, these exchanges nevertheless accredit, according to the prosecution, the existence of a corruption pact under the terms of which Mr. Sarkozy would have promised an intervention in favor of Mr. Azibert, in compensation information on a case then examined by the Court of Cassation.

Throughout the proceedings, the defense has also, in vain, tried to have these wiretaps canceled and again filed appeals to this effect on Monday, the first day of the hearings, on the grounds that they would violate the confidentiality of the communication between a lawyer and his client.

The former president himself often denounced the "infamy" of having been listened to - "for seven months", he underlines - and said he was "stunned" on Tuesday after they were broadcast in the auditorium. hearing.

But he did find some virtues in them on Wednesday afternoon.

"In charge and exculpation"

“The eavesdropping, there are incriminating but also exculpatory elements”, he thus declared at the bar, referring specifically to some of the charges of influence peddling which weigh on him and his two co-defendants.

At the time of the tapping, Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to the Court of Cassation to have the seizure of his presidential diaries invalidated and he is suspected of having, via Me Herzog and Mr. Azibert, learned of a document linked to this appeal and covered by secrecy: the opinion of the rapporteur.

(lr) Photo montage from November 18, 2020 of lawyer Thierry Herzog, Nicolas Sarkozy and former magistrate Gilbert Azibert © Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT, Thomas COEX, Philippe LOPEZ / AFP/Archives

Gilbert Azibert "had access to the opinion which will never be published by the rapporteur intended for his colleagues" and "this opinion concludes (...) to the withdrawal of all the mentions relating to your diaries", thus affirms Me Herzog to the former president on January 30.

At the bar, Mr. Sarkozy placed on his desk the transcription of the tapping which proves, according to him, that he was unaware of the secret nature of this opinion and that he therefore did not commit any offence.

"My answers show that I don't understand anything about it", assures the former president who then reads it: "Why? Hmm? Was that published?"

According to his explanations, the former head of state then mixes three documents with fairly similar wordings: the "opinion" of the Advocate General, the "report" of the rapporteur and the "opinion" of the rapporteur.

Only the latter is confidential.

Once again, the former president wants us to stick to the transcripts.

"At all times (in listening, editor's note), we see that I do not make the difference between the report, the opinion and the opinion of the rapporteur", he maintains, confessing his "incompetence" on the procedure, very particular, at the Court of Cassation.

The president of the court is a little surprised: "It's complicated but it's still not quantum mechanics".

Very combative, the former head of state insists: his good faith is attested by the very nature of the interceptions.

"I do not ask (to Me Herzog, editor's note) any question (about the opinion) when I am on a line where I do not think I will be listened to".

And to conclude: "These plays show my perfect transparency".

He is not the only defendant to have used this paradox on Wednesday, during debates which were often lost in the meanders of the Court of Cassation.

Gilbert Azibert, 75, thus delivered a strange confession.

“My regret is that I was not tapped” earlier, he said.

Conversations he had with Me Herzog a few weeks before the "connection" of his line would have made it possible, according to him, to establish that he never crossed the "yellow" line.

End of the debates scheduled for December 16.

© 2022 AFP