ethics
02-03-2004, 11:09 AM
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy: "President Jacques Chirac was fighting last night to regain control of a fast unravelling scandal encircling his political power base," reports London's Daily Telegraph (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/02/wchir02.xml):
M Chirac seized charge of an inquiry into alleged telephone taps, break-ins and violent threats against judges investigating Alain Juppé, the former prime minister and [Chirac's] heir apparent, convicted on Friday of organising illegal party funding.
The extraordinary intervention came the day after the justice ministry announced it would investigate the allegations.
His gazumping of his own ministry indicates the seriousness with which he is taking the insinuation that he or his allies tried to pressure the judges in the Juppé case. . . . M Chirac has also been implicated in the case which brought down Juppé, involving the use of Paris town hall money to pay salaries to party employees.
M Chirac seized charge of an inquiry into alleged telephone taps, break-ins and violent threats against judges investigating Alain Juppé, the former prime minister and [Chirac's] heir apparent, convicted on Friday of organising illegal party funding.
The extraordinary intervention came the day after the justice ministry announced it would investigate the allegations.
His gazumping of his own ministry indicates the seriousness with which he is taking the insinuation that he or his allies tried to pressure the judges in the Juppé case. . . . M Chirac has also been implicated in the case which brought down Juppé, involving the use of Paris town hall money to pay salaries to party employees.