'Is he loyal to us?': phone tap shows ex-president Sarkozy's doubts over current French spy chief
Mediapart can disclose the content of more phone taps concerning former president Nicolas Sarkozy that show how he and his entourage have sought to glean information on the state of judicial probes from senior state officials. One conversation reveals that the ex-head of state was worried about the “loyalty” of the new head of France's domestic intelligence service, from whom he was trying to extract key details. Judges investigating the Libyan funding of Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign also believe they may have uncovered the identity of one of the former president's “moles” in the intelligence services. As Fabrice Arfi reports, the revelations provide further evidence about how far Nicolas Sarkozy and his aides seem willing to go in order to find out how judicial investigations are progressing.
TheThe contents of judicial phone taps on Nicolas Sarkozy show his concern about the lack of cooperation he received from France's new spy chief last year over the judicial investigation into the funding of the former president's election campaign by Libya in 2007. The transcripts of the phone taps, obtained by Mediapart, record his attempts to get information about the probe from Patrick Calvar, director of the Direction Centrale du Renseignement intérieur (DCRI), France's domestic intelligence agency. Worried about Calvar's apparent reluctance to divulge details on the subject, Sarkozy asks a close aide: “But is he loyal to us?” Mediapart can also reveal that the judges investigating the funding by Muammar Gaddafi's regime of the former president's 2007 campaign have identified a potential Sarkozy “mole” in the intelligence services. They are examining, too, the possible role of a senior executive at aerospace group EADS (now the Airbus Group) in supplying information concerning the investigation to Sarkozy's entourage.
