Carla's Hubby Headed to the Hoosegow?

Fox, France's Sarkozy convicted of corruption, sentenced to jail

A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.

The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved.

As I said when he was charged back in 2018, "Nicholas Sarkozi is only of interest to me because he is married to Carla Bruni, one of the most beautiful and talented women on the planet. Imagine Melania Trump with hit music. If Dos Equiis had a world's most interesting women, she would be it."

The court said Sarkozy will be entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet.

The court said the facts were "particularly serious" given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest. In addition, as a former lawyer, he was "perfectly informed" about committing an illegal action, the court said.

I wonder what the appeals process in France is like? 

Sarkozy's two co-defendants were also found guilty and given the same sentence as Sarkozy.

Sarkozy will face another trial later this month along with 13 other people on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.

At the same time, I can't escape the nagging feeling that he has been pursued by his left-wing enemies with an axe to grind, the same way I fully expect Democrat attorney generals to continue to harass President Trump for the rest of his life.

Previous posts on Carla Bruni (and sometimes Nikolas Sarkozi):

Carla's Hubby in the Dock
G20 Wizards Fall for Carla Bruni Honey Trap
Carla Bruni's First Lady Prospects Looking Up
Carla Bruni to Leave Fance for Tax Haven
It's (almost) Final! Carla Bruni Out in France!
Say It Ain't So, Carla!
Carla Bruni Can't Wait to Get it Over With
Take A Smoke Break, Carla!
Putting Carla On a Pedestal
Powerful Men and Pretty Women - Rule 5 - Carla Bruni
Somebody thinks Bella Hadid is a Carla Bruni wannabe.

Carla's Hubby in the Dock

French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy arrested over ‘receiving £42m in illegal campaign funds from dead Libyan dictator Gaddafi’

FORMER French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been arrested over accusations he received £42million in illegal campaign funding from dead Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The 63-year-old was arrested by judicial police in Paris and taken to their headquarters in the suburb on Nanterre, local media reported.

Nicholas Sarkozi is only of interest to me because he is married to Carla Bruni, one of the most beautiful and talented women on the planet. Imagine Melania Trump with hit music. If Dos Equiis had a world's most interesting women, she would be it.

He is to be questioned as part of a probe into suspected irregularities over his election campaign financing, according to an official in the French judiciary.

The probe related to alleged Libyan funding for Sarkozy's 2007 campaign, Le Monde newspaper reported. Sarkozy is said to have received the kickbacks in 2007 during the presidential election campaign that swept him to power for a single five-year term.

This exhibits the danger in a system where the party in power uses the legal system to try to punish the other side. Like ours.

French law bans candidates from receiving cash payments above £6,300, but the massive donation is said to have been laundered through bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland.
. . .
A document made public in Paris is said to show that the French leader and the former Libyan dictator made an illegal financial deal. It was written in Arabic and signed by Mussa Kussa, Gaddafi's intelligence chief in 2006.

It refers to an "agreement in principle to support the campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections Nicolas Sarkozy for a sum equivalent to €50million (£43million)".

I don't think Nicholas is stupid enough to put a $43, let alone £43 million bribe on paper.

Previous posts on Carla Bruni:

G20 Wizards Fall for Carla Bruni Honey Trap
Carla Bruni's First Lady Prospects Looking Up

Carla Bruni to Leave Fance for Tax Haven
It's (almost) Final! Carla Bruni Out in France!
Say It Ain't So, Carla!
Carla Bruni Can't Wait to Get it Over With
Take A Smoke Break, Carla!
Putting Carla On a Pedestal
Powerful Men and Pretty Women - Rule 5 - Carla Bruni

Somebody thinks Bella Hadid is a Carla Bruni wannabe.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Nikki Nicole" ready for your digital pleasure.

Powerful Men and Pretty Women: The French Connection

Back in May, 2012, the French decided to oust the husband of Carla Bruni from his elected position as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra, and installed the socialist, François Hollande in his place. Seeing as how I had managed several posts about Carla, I was somewhat upset by the prospect of having less excuses to post photos of Carla, clearly the worlds most interesting woman.

Francois Hollande

However, at the time it was revealed that the new occupant of the offices of President of France and co-prince of Andorra was not married, but had a "relationship" with Valérie Trierweiler (48), a French political talk show host (think David Gregory in skirts), and that seemed promising.

Hey, they're French, it doesn't hurt me none.

At the time, it was reported that she would serve the role of the French "First Lady", a role for which she seemed to be quite happy to fulfill.Again, it's their country, no skin off my nose...

Valérie Trierweiler

However, it is now being reported that Hollande has traded in Valérie for a younger , soft core film actress, Julie Gayet (41). (NSFW links).  Hey, once you become president and co-prince, maybe an upgrade is in order.

Again, François and Valérie are not married, so, well, no harm, no foul, right?



Well, you'd think so, but it turns out that the position of First Lady in France is  quasi-official:

However the First Lady is a public figure and has a private office and personal staff paid with taxpayers' money.

Julie Gayet

And having gotten the position of First Lady the honest way, by sleeping with the boss, Valérie is seemingly unwilling to give up the post:

Sources close to Trierweiler told Le Parisien newspaper that she was the first one to want her position clarified.

Meanwhile Valérie is hospitalized for "rest and some tests":

Meanwhile the 48-year-old former journalist remains at the Paris Hospital where she was admitted "for rest and some tests" after Closer magazine printed photos purportedly showing the president and the Gayet arriving separately at the same time at a flat not far from the Elysee.

"The doctors will determine when she can be dismissed from hospital. She needs to recover from the shock she has suffered," one of Trierweiler's aides told Europe 1 radio.

Clearly, things are looking better in France, except for that outrageous tax thing.  But again, that's their problem, not mine.

Thanks to Ace for pointing this out.

Wombat-Socho has this week's Rule 5 Sunday post "Under the Wire" in, well, under the wire.

G20 Wizards Fall for Carla Bruni Honey Trap

Dozens of G20 diplomats had computers hacked after clicking on an attachment labelled 'To see naked pictures of Carla Bruni click here'

Heiress, supermodel, rock star, First Lady and now mother, there aren't many that compare to Carla.

Nude pictures of former French first lady Carla Bruni were used to break in to the computer systems of dozens of diplomats, it emerged today.

The shocking security breach was first discovered at the G20 summit in Paris in February 2011 and may be ongoing.

‘To see naked pictures of Carla Bruni click here’ said a message sent to those attending, who included finance ministers and central bank representatives.

This prompted many to open an attachment which turned out to be a ‘Trojan Horse’ with an embedded virus, although all recipients could see were the X-rated photographs.

Once accessed, it infected the computers of senior officials as well as forwarding the offensive email on to others.

Truly, the world is in the best of hands...

‘Almost everybody who received the email took the bait,’ said a government source in Paris, saying that this included representatives from the Czech Republic, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and Latvia.

Mr Sarkozy was first embarrassed by nude pictures of Ms Bruni surfacing shortly after their marriage, while they were staying with the Queen at Windsor Castle during a state visit to Britain.

Embarrassed?  For crying out loud, he's French; I'm sure he was proud, and wouldn't be surprised if he didn't arrange the re-emergence of the pictures himself.  Besides, given a choice between Carli Bruni and the Queen?  No contest.  Sorry, Liz.

Ms Bruni, who still uses her maiden name in her career as a pop singer, later changed her image from a Paris sex kitten into a demure politician’s wife.

The so-called phishing attacks are thought to have originated in China and were aimed at extracting information.

The attacks are still being investigated, and nobody is yet sure what information was extracted.

America is thought to have been the main target of the scam.

Carla has been a subject on this blog numerous times, and most of the links have one or more of the pictures in question.

Carla Bruni's First Lady Prospects Looking Up
Carla Bruni to Leave Fance for Tax Haven 
It's (almost) Final! Carla Bruni Out in France! 
Say It Ain't So, Carla! 
Carla Bruni Can't Wait to Get it Over With
Take A Smoke Break, Carla! 
Putting Carla On a Pedestal
Powerful Men and Pretty Women - Rule 5 - Carla Bruni

Wombat-Socho got the master Rule 5 Sunday post up on "Rule 5 Monday" this week.   

Carla Bruni's First Lady Prospects Looking Up

Nicolas Sarkozy (and husband of the world's interesting woman) most influential political figure in France, poll finds

The Right-wing former president came 20th in Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche's bi-annual Top 50 poll, some 24 places ahead of François Hollande, the Socialist who roundly beat him last year but now faces record low popularity ratings.

There's nothing like a devout socialist to make the "right-wing" look good.  Too bad it takes so long to undo the damage they cause.

The two men were the only politicians present in the list, dominated by music, film, TV and sports celebrities.

The poll came a day after Mr Sarkozy reportedly received a rock star's welcome when he turned up to a pop concert in St-Tropez with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, during which half the audience gave him a standing ovation.

Are we sure the standing ovation was for Nick and not Carla?  She is, after all, a super-model and rock star, a combination rarely matched.

The 58-year-old's ranking is the highest he has ever achieved, including in a poll taken in the "honeymoon period" shortly after his election for a five-year term in 2007.

 If I were French (and I'm glad I'm not), I'd support Sarkozy just so that France would have the world's coolest first lady again.

Roger Karoutchi, a UMP senator and Sarkozy supporter, said: "Those who hoped to turn the page on 'Sarkozysm' are sorely mistaken." "The stronger the discredit of François Hollande, the more people feel cheated and the more that gives credit to Nicolas Sarkozy's record."

Well yes, as Margret Thatcher pointed out, the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to steal.  Usually quicker than you think because the people who make it it vote with their feet.

Mr Sarkozy's strategy of keeping silent is clearly paying off but any full return to political life would be "extremely complicated," Mr Dabi warned.

"There is a kind of Americanisation of French politics," he said. "Before (François) Mitterrand and Chirac could try and return several times. Today in France, it's one strike and you're out."

Well, that's not strictly true; Nixon came back after losing the presidential race once, and more recently, well, we'll have to see about Spitzer and Weiner.

Carla Bruni to Leave Fance for Tax Haven

And she's taking some guy with her... Sarkozy's plans 'to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund'

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy could become the next wealthy Frenchman to flee to Britain over his country’s looming tax hikes on the rich.

Mr Sarkozy – who famously snubbed the Prime Minister’s attempt to shake his hand after Mr Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty in 2011 – is reportedly planning to move to London to set up a £800million investment fund.

Carla and her beau, whoever he is, are not the first wealthy people to depart France as a result of the new 75% tax on upper income planned by the new regime.  We've seen previously that Laetetia Casta, another supermodel type, and some old fat guy (not that there's anything wrong with that) have also departed France for greener and/or redder pastures.

The 57-year-old, who was ousted from office last June, has amassed a fortune from £150,000-an-hour public speaking engagements and is now said to be trying to raise capital from investors.

If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.


He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.

Carla is, of course, the power in the couple.  A polymath, supermodel (NSFW) singer and lover.  As cattily noted by Ann Althouse, she "famously" cheated on Eric Clapton with Mick Jagger.  Neither of whom were ever noted to be models of fidelity. Nick is just a poor schlub who married up.

But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.

Details of the planned move were uncovered during a raid by fraud police on Sarkozy’s Paris mansion last June.

It came within weeks of Mr Sarkozy losing his immunity against prosecution after being defeated by Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the May presidential election.

So how much do you owe your country?  When your country does something so completely and personally vindictive (I'm mean, they're not raping everybody, just the rich 1%), do you owe it to you country to stay and pay?  Remember, the United States is a country of immigrants.  Each one of those immigrants was also an emigrant from another country, one which made them dissatisfied.  In fact, this will be Carla's second exile, having left her native Italy for France.

Previous Carla Bruni posts:

It's (almost) Final! Carla Bruni Out in France!
Say It Ain't So, Carla!
Take A Smoke Break, Carla!
Carla Bruni Can't Wait to Get it Over With
Putting Carla On a Pedestal
Powerful Men and Pretty Women - Rule 5 - Carla Bruni

Wombat-Socho has this one in with his great (in more ways than one) list of Rule 5 posts "Neuroengesang" at The Other McCain.  Also picked up by the Classical Liberal in his Rule 5 post "Pistol Grip Pump."

It's (almost) Final! Carla Bruni Out in France!

Oh, And what's his name, too: Socialist Hollande beats Sarkozy in French presidential poll

Left-wing candidate François Hollande has defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in Sunday's runoff, exit polls say, becoming the first Socialist to win a presidential election since François Mitterrand in 1988.

François Hollande has won France’s presidential election, giving the country its first Socialist president in almost two decades, exit polls showed Sunday.

Just exit polls, huh?  Maybe we can still hope for a miracle. Not that the French deserve one.

Say It Ain't So, Carla!

Nicolas Sarkozy loses vote, forced into run-off with Socialist

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist candidate François Hollande will face off in the second round of France's presidential election after edging out the far right's Marine Le Pen in Sunday's first round of voting.

Socialist presidential challenger François Hollande topped the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday with 28.4 percent of votes, while incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy finished second with 25.5 percent, according to exit polls. Those figures set up a widely expected run-off between Sarkozy and the candidate of France’s main opposition party who led most voter intentions surveys before the first round...

A run-off between Sarkozy and Hollande is scheduled on May 6, with opinion polls largely favouring the Socialist Party candidate.

You know what this means, don't you?  This means that Carlo Bruni Sarkozy, heiress, super model and rockstar, will lose her position as First Lady of  French Republic! Mon Dieu!

And you know what else that means?  All the photos I saved for my ongoing series of posts on Carla Bruni are going to waste! I can't let that happen.  How many other First Ladies posed nude, (NSFW link) and would we appreciate it if they did?

I wonder if there's anything else in this article is worthwhile commenting on; it's mostly just French electoral politics, which are even more meaningless and futile than our own.  At least our candidates eat puppies, and tie dogs to the roof of cars (I need some text to wrap around these pictures):

Hollande, who was seen as benefitting from a wave of hostility towards Sarkozy, proved a surprisingly resilient candidate. The Socialist hopeful began campaigning months before the incumbent and while he temporarily slipped behind Sarkozy in opinion polls, he regained his frontrunner status in the final two weeks of the race.

At least in France, the Socialists are out of the closet, unlike the democrats in the US who pursue identical policies.

French analysts rushed to speculate on how the whole of the election results would affect the outcome of the May 6 run-off, and on what many saw as the impending return of the Socialist Party to the Elysee Presidential palace and a Socialist-led parliament.

The French left has spent the last 10 years as the country’s main opposition group, and had to digest three consecutive presidential defeats in 1995, 2002 and 2007. Former president François Mitterrand, who won back-to-back elections in 1981 and 1988, remains France’s only Socialist head of state since the end of World War Two.

Let France experiment with Socialism.

Special Thanks to Wombat-Socho for picking up this and other links in his special Thursday edition of Rule 5 Sunday.

Putting Carla On a Pedestal

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy to be immortalized in 6ft bronze statue

Following in the immortalised footsteps of Joan of Arc, General de Gaulle and Marianne – the full-figured, flowing-haired female symbol of the French republic who graces Gallic public buildings – the president's wife is being cast as a six-foot bronze statue.

But the €80,000 effigy, partially funded by taxpayers' money, has caused outrage in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, population 30,000.

No word on whether or not the statue will be in the nude.  Past history suggests that Carla has no particular issue with that.

The idea of putting Bruni-Sarkozy on a pedestal comes courtesy of Jacques JP Martin, the local mayor and a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling right-of-centre UMP party.

Martin says he came up with the idea of Bruni-Sarkozy symbolising a "plumassière" – a female worker from one of the area's former feather factories – to pay tribute to the local Italian community. Bruni-Sarkozy was born in Italy.

More than half the cost is being met out of public funds. A property company is paying the rest.

Sucking up to the Boss and the bosses wife has been a good idea down through herstory...

William Geib, of the opposition Socialist party, said the statue was inappropriate. "It's sad for the women who were employed in this job. Carla Bruni must have seen more ostrich features on the catwalks than in a factory."

A socialist who suggests that an artistic stimulus project like this is inappropriate, especially if it's nude?? French socialists must be more conservative than American ones. 

Marc Arias, an independent local councillor, claimed the council was not told the statue would be modelled on Bruni-Sarkozy. "This small detail was not specified during the budget vote," he said.

A spokesperson for the first lady said suggestions of a personality cult were rubbish. "Carla isn't Joan of Arc or General de Gaulle," she said. "Carla is a former model … she receives numerous artistic requests."...

However, the statue may be out of date even before it is installed. It is due to be unveiled in May around the time of the presidential second-round runoff in which, polls suggest, Nicolas Sarkozy is heading for defeat.

I'll miss her, if it's true.  Previous Carla Bruni posts:
Carla Bruni Can't Wait to Get it Over With
Take A Smoke Break, Carla!
Powerful Men and Pretty Women - Rule 5 - Carla Bruni
Nick, Don't Piss Carla Off!

Wombat-Socho at the Other McCain includes this and many other Rule 5 posts (some of them mine) in his weekly collection, "Secret World."

Obama Insults Sarkozy, French

Obama’s Sarkozy remark offends French

“I want to make mention that this is our first meeting since the arrival of the newest Sarkozy, and so I want to congratulate Nicolas and Carla on the birth of Giulia,” Mr. Obama told reporters shortly after his arrival at the G-20, with Mr. Sarkozy at his side. “And I informed Nicolas on the way in that I am confident that Giulia inherited her mother’s looks rather than her father’s, which I think is an excellent thing.”

He added, “And so now we share one of the greatest challenges and blessings of life, and that is being fathers to our daughters.”

Mr. Sarkozy, who is said to be very conscious about his looks, did not appear greatly amused by the comment, and some observers who attended the meeting said Mr. Obama’s remark fell flat.

That's certainly a joke I might make; in fact, I think I have, with respect to Carla, Nikolas and Giulia.  In America, a little game of dissin' between friends is not unacceptable.  Unfortunately heads of state are not often true friends, and the French have a notoriously poor sense of humor (I mean, Jerry Lewis?).  And it's not unlikely for a nation to come the defense of their lead if they think he has been unfairly maligned by another foreign leader:

“The U.S. President’s picnic on the ‘physical’ of his French counterpart is only the latest episode of reports [which are] rather cool at best, at worst frankly tense,” said L’Observateur newspaper, which called the two leaders “the best enemies.”

Another French publication said Mr. Obama had chosen to compliment Mr. Sarkozy “in a way unique to say the least, before the cameras around the world.”

The French celebrity website Staragora said Mr. Obama’s comment was “risky” and “not very cool, for the French president [was] humiliated in public.”

“Barack Obama has openly and publicly ridiculed the physical [appearance of] Nicolas Sarkozy,” Staragora said, adding that Mr. Obama’s comments were delivered “without pity.”

 At least Barack didn't diss Carla; that would really upset me.

Featured in Maggie's list of Rule 5 posts for the week along with her own post on the 10 hottest blonds (how can anyone limit the field like that?).

Take A Smoke Break, Carla!

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gives birth to girl

When we lasted checked in on Carla, she was pining for a smoke and a stiff drink, denied to her by her pregnancy with her second kid.  Well, her nicotine fits a sobriety are over.  Today at 7:30 PM Paris time, Carla popped out the package.

France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to the first French presidential baby on Wednesday night.

The child, a girl, had been expected for a fortnight, and was born at the La Muette private clinic in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Well done Carla, have that smoke and a sip on us.  And since you may well be out of the public limelight for a while (especially if you get your way), this is my best chance to use up the miscellaneous pictures of you I've collected.

Not a lot of milk here!

President Nicolas Sarkozy was reported to have flown back from Germany, where he was having urgent talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel about saving the euro, to see his newborn daughter.

According to French reports she was born around 7.30pm on Wednesday evening. No further details were released. It is first child to be born to a serving French president.

Europe 1 radio said Bruni-Sarkozy, 43, was doing well after the birth. It is her second child – she has a son from an earlier relationship – while Sarkozy, 57, has three boys from two previous marriages.

The birth will come as a relief to long-suffering residents around La Muette in the upmarket 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Meanwhile, Nick will be off, hobnobbing with the heads of Europe.  A tedious job, but somebody has to do it.  Maybe he'll even win re-election (though, honestly, why would anyone want the job - Oh, that's right, the chicks!)

Police sealed off the roads around the clinic at the beginning of the month and security has been tight ever since. As the days passed speculation turned feverish, not to mention fantastic, with false alerts including Twitter reports that the baby had already been born, and was a boy named Vadim.

"It's been a fortnight that the area has been packed with police officers and paparazzi," one local complained.

Bruni-Sarkozy will also be pleased to finally given birth, given her recent confession that she was bored by pregnancy and anxious to "get it over with" so she could have a drink and a cigarette.

And we'll remember you for what you used to be, heiress, supermodel, and rock star.

Maggie links this post in her paen to curvy girls. And as always, I thank the Wombat at The Other McCain's for assembling his large weekly collection of Rule 5 posts.  The Classical Liberal picks it up to, in his Rule 5 sweep.