French judges searched the offices of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday, a day after targeting his home, as they investigated allegations he unlawfully tried to wreck Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential hopes.
Judicial sources say investigators believe Villepin might have tried to use falsified documents to smear his political rival in 2004 in a murky plot that almost pulled his government apart when details emerged last year.
Villepin has denied any wrongdoing and returned home from a holiday late on Thursday to be on hand when judges searched his office in central Paris on Friday morning.
The scandal kicked off in 2004 when anonymous letters were sent to an examining magistrate alleging Sarkozy and a group of other senior politicians held accounts in Clearstream, a financial clearing house in Luxembourg. The money was said to be linked to the bribe-ridden sale of frigates to Taiwan in 1991, but the accounts proved bogus.
Deleted files retrieved this week from the computer of an intelligence officer suggested Villepin himself encouraged the anonymous tip-off to the magistrate, judicial sources said. The sources have said Villepin could be placed under formal investigation for complicity in false accusations. Such a move would not imply guilt, but would be unprecedented against a former prime minister in modern French history.
Judges Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons spent six hours at Villepin's Paris apartment on Thursday afternoon and confiscated several documents. On Friday, they visited his office housed in an annex of the French Foreign Ministry.
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