Word: villepin
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...marathon brawl at the top of France's conservative political establishment took another dramatic turn Thursday when a Paris court cleared former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of charges he orchestrated a smear campaign to scuttle fellow conservative and arch-enemy Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential hopes. De Villepin's acquittal will allow him to redouble his opposition to Sarkozy - and claim he survived the president's attempt to eliminate him with a trumped-up court case...
...trial centered on accusations that de Villepin used successive cabinet positions to mount a dirty tricks campaign in the mid-2000s aimed at discrediting Sarkozy - then a popular minister who shared de Villepin's ambition to succeed President Jacques Chirac. Sarkozy's lawyers argued that de Villepin sought to exploit a fake list of French notables, including Sarkozy, who allegedly held secret bank accounts containing illegal kickback money. (See pictures of Sarkozy...
...Villepin emphatically denied having cooked up any scandal when he was given the list, and only learned much later that it was a hoax. A tribunal of three judges believed that position, clearing de Villepin of charges that included complicity to slander, use of forgeries and stolen property, and breach of trust. Three other defendants in the case, however, were convicted for their roles in composing and circulating the fake list. "After many years of torment, my innocence has been recognized," a solemn but relieved-looking de Villepin said outside the same courtroom where Marie-Antoinette was sentenced...
...foes really forget? A longtime supporter and adviser to Chirac, de Villepin shares his former boss's hatred of Sarkozy. While still president, Chirac urged de Villepin to position himself as a possible leader in part to block the popular Sarkozy...
...before that happened, de Villepin, then Foreign Minister, came into the forged list containing Sarkozy's name. Once that was leaked to and investigated by the French media, Sarkozy found himself cast in the role of victim of an apparent conspiracy to wreck his political career. (Read: "Sarkozy Backs Appointment...