De Villepin Ordered To Stand Trial For “Complicity” In Defamation in Clearstream Case

Agence France Presse reports that Dominique de Villepin, former French Prime Minister, will face charges over the Clearstream affair, which has been referred to as “France’s Watergate.” The story trails back to 2004, when someone leaked a list of names of government officials, including Nicolas Sarkozy, and others in industry, who were supposed to have secret bank accounts that they used for laundering money used for bribes. None of this information turned out to be true. Mr. Sarkozy asked that an investigation be launched to determine who was behind the leak. Now, Mr. de Villepin has been charged with involvement, the motive presumably to discredit Mr. Sarkozy and prevent a run for the Presidency. Mr. de Villepin denies the allegations. Read more here in a Guardian article.