PARIS: Voices from the past, some crackling and, according to the public prosecutor, the outlines of a corruption pact: Talks from 2014 between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog were publicly broadcast for the first time on Tuesday during the appeals process in the case of “wiring”.

Two small wall loudspeakers and 24 sound files plunged the Paris Court of Appeal into the heart of these acts of corruption and influence-peddling: the exchange between the ex-president and his historic lawyer on two unofficial lines was recorded in early January 2014 under the pseudonym “Paul Wismut”.

In the first place, technical reasons had prevented their broadcast and the prospect of hearing them on Tuesday exhausted a large audience, which was subjected to drastic measures for the occasion. Each phone had to be turned off and placed in a sealed freezer bag, which was distributed at the entrance to the courtyard.

From these phone conversations, it is evident the close proximity between Mr Sarkozy and his lawyer and longtime friend – “How are you, Thierry?”, “I kiss you, my Thierry” – and a little play between their “unofficial” phone lines and official.

“Answers on the phone (officially, editor’s note) because … we have the impression that we are talking,” Mr. Sarkozy slipped onto the “Wismut” line on February 1. “Okay, I’ll answer now? Um… what are we talking about?” asks his lawyer. “Call me back and say you called me,” adds the ex-president.

On the merits, his concern over an appeal he subsequently filed before the Court of Cassation to invalidate the confiscation of his presidential diaries related to the Bettencourt affair is evident.

Again, warned had Gilbert Azibert, then General Counsel at the Court of Cassation, managed to obtain a confidential opinion on the case and appears to be trying to sway the deliberations in favor of the former President Report on the phone Me Herzog.

“I was surprised”

The former head of state follows all this closely. “Gilbert, there is no news?”, “We still have no news from the Court of Cassation?” he repeatedly asks his lawyer, who in turn praises Mr Azibert’s interventions in this file.

“Here… He was working, huh,” he summarizes on Jan. 29.

A few days later, the lawyer reports to the ex-president that Mr. Azibert is seeking a post in the judicial hierarchy in Monaco.

“He said to me, ‘Don’t you dare ask. Maybe I should have a helping hand. Well, I told him you’re kidding what you’re doing,'” says Me Herzog.

“No, don’t worry, tell him,” replies Nicolas Sarkozy. “Call him today and say I’ll take care of it because I’m going to Monaco.” A commitment that he will reaffirm on February 25 during his visit to the Principality. “You can tell him that I will do the trial at noon”.

The next day, listening devices reveal a radical change in content and form: Nicolas Sarkozy calls his lawyer, this time using one of his office phones; his tone loses spontaneity and he backs down on his promise to use his networks to support Mr. Azibert.

“Well, I told you I would do it. And then I thought it’s going to sound very strange,” he says.

Investigators say the sudden reversal is related to the fact that Mr Sarkozy and his lawyer learned that the “Bismuth” line had also been tapped, but a parallel investigation failed to identify a possible mole.

One certainty: Mr Azibert did not get the job in Monaco and the Court of Cassation dismissed Mr Sarkozy’s appeal. According to the defendants, this was proof that the corruption pact was just a “fantasy”.

At the end of the day, the floor went back to Nicolas Sarkozy. The ex-president took to the bar to say all the bad things he thought about those interceptions he was hearing “for the first time”.

“We can say goodbye to the confidentiality between a lawyer and his client,” he thundered. “When I heard that for two hours, I was amazed,” he also said, adding, “I felt physically uncomfortable.”

End of debates scheduled for December 16th.