The official biography of France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has revealed the presidential couple used the secret services to find out who was spreading rumours of their alleged infidelity.
According to the authors of Carla and the Ambitious, Bruni-Sarkozy openly admitted she had obtained a police report identifying the culprits, including the former justice minister Rachida Dati.
The revelation comes as president Nicolas Sarkozy faces an embarrassing investigation into allegations the Elysée ordered France's intelligence services to spy on Le Monde journalists and identify the source of leaks in the political scandal surrounding L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Unsubstantiated and vehemently denied rumours that both the president and his supermodel-turned-singer wife were having affairs spread around the world in March.
It was suggested at the time the couple had called on the security services to find out who was spreading the rumour but no evidence emerged.
Now, journalists Michaël Darmon and Yves Derai say the Elysée received a full police report suggesting there had been a plot by Dati, a former favourite of the president who was later sacked from the cabinet, and a second woman once married to the president's younger brother.
The authors say secret agents identified the plotters through their telephone calls and text messages and suggested the culprits tried to involve others, including a lobby group and a "VIP guru". Believing Bruni-Sarkozy was the president's "weak link" and an easy target, they aimed to persuade the president's previous wife, Cécilia Attias, from whom he split a few months after he was elected in 2007, to return.
Le Parisien newspaper said that as soon as she had the report in her hands, Bruni-Sarkozy called her predecessor, who now lives in New York, informing her: "Madam, I have to tell you that two people with who you are in contact are behaving in an unacceptable manner towards us … I am not talking about suspicious or malicious gossip. I have a police report that you are welcome to see. I know you have nothing to do with them but I suggest you keep away from them."
Darmon and Derai say police examined the phone records of several well-known "personalities" suspected of being involved in spreading the rumours.
This week, Le Monde announced a lawsuit for breach of confidentiality of sources, claiming the domestic intelligence agency, the DCRI – the equivalent of MI5 – broke the law by investigating the source of leaks from police interviews with witnesses in the Bettencourt party-funding scandal.
