Paris, September 30, 2019. Bleached during the investigation, Jean-François Cope is still annoyed by a loan contract case concluded on the sidelines of the Bygmalion affair. – ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP
- After a dismissal in March due to the coronavirus epidemic, the trial of the so-called “Bygmalion” case resumes this Thursday at the Paris judicial court. Fourteen people are on trial, including Nicolas Sarkozy.
- The former head of state faces a one-year prison sentence and a 3,750 euro fine for the illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.
- During the investigation, Jean-François Copé was dismissed. He convinced Judge Serge Tournaire that he had not been informed of the establishment of a system of false invoices.
- Some lawyers believe, after having unearthed a loan contract of 55 million bearing his signature, that the former boss of the UMP has not told the whole truth. He will be heard as a witness on May 27.
It may well have been cleared, Jean-François Cope should still have ears whistling, this Thursday, when the trial of the so-called “Bygmalion” case resumes before the 11th chamber of the Paris judicial tribunal. Unlike Nicolas Sarkozy and the thirteen other defendants, the former boss of the UMP benefited from a dismissal in this case. It is therefore as a simple witness that he will be called to come and testify. The date has already been set for May 27. And his hearing is eagerly awaited.
The current mayor (LR) of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) has always claimed that he had not been informed of the Bygmalion system which allowed Nicolas Sarkozy to explode the ceiling of authorized spending, in 2012, for a presidential candidate. That he had only discovered the pot aux roses in 2014, at the time of its revelation by the press.
An analysis that eventually convinced Judge Serge Tournaire to grant him a dismissal, with all the necessary reservations. “If we can find it surprising that the secretary general of the UMP did not try to understand the reasons why his party was on the verge of default at the end of April 2012 […], the investigation did not allow the discovery of material elements suggesting that he was informed of the false invoicing system put in place or capable of detecting it, ”he wrote in his order.
A loan contract of 55 million euros in question
But even today, some seriously doubt it. And intend to let it be known. As they did on March 17, before the trial was officially postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, several lawyers intend to put the matter back on the table. Starting with Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain who defend Guillaume Lambert, the campaign director of Nicolas Sarkozy.
They unearthed a part of the seals of the voluminous investigation to which they had access only late and which could, according to them, bring a “different reading” of the case. This is a loan contract of 55 million euros between the UMP and a conglomerate of four banks, intended to restructure the then bloodless finances of the right-wing party. Problem: this document dates from August 2012 … Well before Jean-François Cope claims to have discovered the affair.
#Bygmalion : The lawyer explains that one of the clauses of the contract provides that the “governing bodies of the UMP” must be informed of this loan.
– Vincent Vantighem (@vvantighem) March 17, 2021
The initials “JFC” in a line of 27 million euros
During the short hearing in March, the prosecutor’s representative indicated that this loan agreement was nothing new and had already been the subject of debate. Except that the version that Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain unearthed bears the signature of Jean-François Cope, unlike, according to them, the version mentioned by the prosecution. And above all that an initial “JFC” appears within three centimeters of an accounting line “Meetings and events” credited with 27.11 million euros.
For this reason, Luc Brossollet, the lawyer of Franck Attal, one of the former leaders of Bygmalion, squarely called for a resumption of the investigation (an “additional information”, in the jargon) on this question. “Let’s start from a simple premise: if I borrow money, I know the use I want to make of it,” he explained to the court. If I borrow to pay off debt, it’s because I know I have debt. I know them ! “, He explained, suggesting that Jean-François Cope knew more than he admitted.
Contacted by 20 minutes, this one simply indicates that he “wishes to reserve [ses] answers ”to the court during its hearing. “I remind you that he was totally exonerated, already confides his lawyer Hervé Témime. This final maneuver by certain protagonists in this dossier has the sole purpose of diverting the attention of observers to other targets… ”As in the good old days of the war between Sarkozysts, fillonnists and copéists. As in the good old days of the UMP, finally.