The court peeled the activities of Penelope Fillon on Monday down to the smallest detail in an attempt to determine whether they deserved a salary. The couple struggled to convince, despite the evidence provided by the defense.
“I have deliberately downplayed my role.” Penelope Fillon leans on the bar while she is iinvited to come back to the interview she had given to Sunday Telegraph in 2007. It is due to this development. At the time, she told the journalist who interviewed him: “I have never been his assistant or anything like that.” The examining magistrates had seen the “confirmation” of their suspicions of fictitious employment as a parliamentary assistant to her husband, François Fillon, when he was deputy for Sarthe, then for Paris.
But on the fourth day of his trial before the Paris Criminal Court, theOn March 2, Penelope Fillon explained that the journalist was referring to the active role that Cherie Blair was able to play with her husband, Tony Blair, when he was British Prime Minister. “I wanted to be clear, I had absolutely no role “, says Penelope Fillon, tried for complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds. What was it then? “My role was to take care of local affairs. I may not have used the right words, but the message was that”, specifies the sexagenarian with silver hair surrounded by a black headband.
Penelope Fillon had a special role: we understand it by reading the testimonies of parliamentary collaborators who have succeeded each other with François Fillon. One of them, who worked between 1982 and 1986 was, for example, “much more on intellectual and political reflections”. “VS’were very very different missions from Penelope “, assures the former Prime Minister with confidence.
When the president of the court asks her if there is no “Duplicate” between the work of another parliamentary assistant and that of his wife, he ensures that “nwe”, Because the latter “was concentrated in the rural cantons of the district”. Another way of repeating that Penelope made the link with the Sarthois and had field work.
Financial prosecutors insist and don’t let go. François Fillon gets annoyed. Then temper and finally launch: “I have often read in the order for reference that the role of Penelope is not a job of assistant, it is a role of originator.” And assume: “Well yes, it is a role of principal.” Because Penelope Fillon did not herself answer the mail arriving at the couple’s mansion: she indicated the answers to be given, gave “Guidelines” to the secretary.
Why did François Fillon assign this role to “[s]first and most important collaborator “ ? “On does not work with your spouse as you work with outside people “, insists the former presidential candidate of 2017. He had already said it on the third day of the trial, Friday, he repeats: he was only a parliamentarian among the 20% who hired family members.
“You can’t judge me the same way knowing that, he argues, without taking into account this environment which was that of the Assembly or the Senate during these last 50 years. “ Now it’s impossible. In the aftermath of the François Fillon case, deputies voted for the ban in July 2017, for ministers and to employ members of their family. “I cannot tell you without hesitation that I am satisfied with this development”, concedes the former deputy mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe.
Basically, did Penelope Fillon not only have the “social role of an elected partner ” ? One of the financial prosecutors dares the question. “VSis a concept that belongs only to you and that wants to be questioned about your vision of society … It is archaic, tackle François Fillon. This role exists for the wife of the Prime Minister, for the wife of the president. Not for the wife of a parliamentarian “, He continues. “If at least this trial served prosecutors to review the social role of the wife, it would be useful”, squeaks François Fillon. “And vice versa!”, retorts the financial prosecutor Aurélien Létocart.
The president of the court brings order. The hearing continues on the discretion of Penelope Fillon, who never shouted loudly that she was the parliamentary attaché of her husband. “The fact of being François Fillon’s wife is more effective in contact with the locals “, justifies the interested party.
I know many parliamentarians who worked with their spouses and their wives have never presented themselves to me as parliamentary assistants to their husbands.at the hearing
Those who knew that François Fillon employed his wife as a collaborator can be counted on the fingers of one hand. No journalist or reporter for the local press told investigators that they were aware of it. Their testimonies are not “not relevant”, sweeps the former LR presidential candidate.
An agenda, a press clipping recounting a meeting between Sarthois and Welsh farmers in the presence of Penelope Fillon, another on an evening in a retirement home, speeches, photos of a horse show, emails exchanged with the secretary of François Fillon … The court examines the documents brought by the defense one by one. The president of the tribunal gently insists on understanding the work of Penelope Fillon as a parliamentary assistant.
The defendant finds it difficult to justify herself. Whenever she stays evasive, her husband comes to the rescue. “Why not go through your employees who took care of the secretariat?” “I had great confidence in the work that she was going to do”, replies François Fillon. “She has a central role, I need her advice”, he insists. “A parliamentary assistant is not there to transmit mail, so Ms. Fillon must have added value”, points out the president of the court. Thehe financial prosecutor Bruno Nataf wonders: was it the wife who was acting or the parliamentary assistant? “I think everything is so mixed that I cannot say: this was the parliamentary assistant, this was the wife … Tall i did was work and help peopleshe replies. I was Penelope Fillon, period. ”
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