PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin serving a 5-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. He is the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned. Sarkozy, hand-in-hand with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, left home before getting into a police car and traveling to prison. On his way to prison, Sarkozy said in a statement released on social media that &ldquo;an innocent man&rdquo; was being locked up. Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyers said a request for release has been immediately filed. He was convicted last month for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. Sarkozy contests both the conviction and a judge&rsquo;s unusual decision to incarcerate him pending appeal. His journey from the presidential Elys&eacute;e Palace to the notorious La Sant&eacute; prison in Paris has captivated France. Minutes before entering prison, Sarkozy and his wife walked slowly to join his children and grandchildren outside his home. He waved at a crowd of supporters gathered in the high-end Paris neighborhood where he lives, then got into his car. Hundreds of supporters applauded and chanted &ldquo;Nicolas, Nicolas&rdquo; and sang the French anthem. Two French flags were hung on a nearby fence, with the inscriptions: &ldquo;Courage Nicolas, return soon&rdquo; and &quot;true France with Nicolas.&quot; Sarkozy&rsquo;s sons and daughter &mdash; Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia &mdash; and his grandchildren showed up at the gathering. Parisian resident Michelle Peri&eacute;, 67, said she came in support &ldquo;because there is anger, injustice.&quot; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not like any other defendants, he&rsquo;s someone who holds state secrets, he&rsquo;s someone who has always done his job with his head held high. We don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; she said. Embattled centrist President Emmanuel Macron hosted the conservative Sarkozy at the presidential palace last week. &lsquo;&rsquo;I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but it was normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context,&#39;&#39; Macron said Monday. Sarkozy&#39;s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration &ldquo;strengthens his determination, it strengthens his rage to prove that he is innocent.&rdquo; Ingrain said Sarkozy is planning to write a book about his prison experience. Jean-Michel Darrois, another of Sarkozy&#39;s lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself &ldquo;mentally prepared&rdquo; to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. &ldquo;First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it&rsquo;s cold in prison, and earplugs because it&rsquo;s very noisy,&rdquo; Darrois said on France Info news broadcaster. &ldquo;Isolation like what he&rsquo;s going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of prison. I&rsquo;ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Sant&eacute;,&rdquo; Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll fight till the end.&rdquo; The paper said Sarkozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and the 10 family photos he is allowed to bring. Sarkozy also told Le Figaro newspaper that he would bring three books &mdash; the maximum allowed &mdash; including Alexandre Dumas&#39; &ldquo;The Count of Monte Cristo,&#39;&#39; in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge. The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to &ldquo;the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense.&rdquo; Under the ruling, the 70-year-old Sarkozy will only be able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he is behind bars, and judges will then have up to two months to process it.

Europe

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a 5-year prison sentence for financing his 2007 campaign with Libyan funds, becoming France’s first jailed ex-leader. He denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal while in solitary confinement.

France’s ex-president Sarkozy jailed for 5 years in campaign finance conspiracy

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WASHINGTON: Former Vice President Kamala Harris said Monday evening that she regrets not expressing her concerns about then-President Joe Biden running for a second term when a majority of Americans felt he was too old for the job.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;I have and had a certain responsibility that I should have followed through on,&quot; Harris told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in her first live television interview since the election.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Such a conversation, even if it happened privately and behind the scenes, would have been an extraordinary breach in the relationship between a president and vice president.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harris&#39; comments expand on a passage in her book, &ldquo;107 Days,&rdquo; that looks back on her experience replacing Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he dropped out of the race. Harris ultimately lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the book, Harris wrote that everyone in the White House would say &ldquo;it&rsquo;s Joe and Jill&rsquo;s decision&rdquo; about running for reelection, referring to the president and first lady.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;The stakes were simply too high. This wasn&rsquo;t a choice that should have been left to an individual&rsquo;s ego, an individual&rsquo;s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In her interview with Maddow, Harris said, &quot;When I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I&#39;m talking about myself.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harris said in the interview she was concerned that &ldquo;it would come off as completely self-serving&rdquo; if she had counseled Biden not to seek reelection. She had competed against him for their party&#39;s 2020 nomination, and she was well positioned to run again. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A representative for Biden declined comment.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although Harris wrote that she wasn&#39;t worried about Biden&#39;s ability to continue doing the job, she had concerns about him campaigning. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;His voice was no longer strong, his verbal stumbles more frequent,&rdquo; she wrote. Before Biden dropped out, there were plans for him to run a White House-centric campaign while Harris did more traveling. A week after Biden&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/bidentrumppresidentialdebate-0e7577e9a354a69f50675494fea54ca9" style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 84, 189); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">disastrous debate</a><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;against Trump, she wrote that &ldquo;he felt so frail.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harris turns 61 next month, and she hasn&#39;t detailed her future plans. Asked about running for president again in 2028, Harris said &ldquo;that&#39;s not my focus right now.&rdquo; She&#39;s already passed on an opportunity to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-california-governor-2026-eeea5d7315d65cebb50692c5311379fb" style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 84, 189); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">run for governor</a><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;of her home state of California. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She backed a plan by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw congressional districts to counter a similar plan by Republicans in Texas intended to help Trump keep control of the House in next year&rsquo;s midterms. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;We tend to play by the rules,&quot; Harris said. &quot;But I think this is a moment where you got to fight fire with fire.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She spoke harshly about Trump in the interview, criticizing him as acting like &ldquo;a tyrant&rdquo; and &ldquo;Communist dictators,&rdquo; saying &ldquo;that&#39;s what we&#39;re dealing right now in Donald Trump.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harris also pointed the finger at business leaders who she accused of capitulating to the president. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;These titans of industry are not speaking up,&rdquo; she said. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maddow referenced a passage in Harris&#39; book where she wrote that Pete Buttigieg was her first choice for vice president but she was worried that Americans weren&#39;t ready to vote for a ticket featuring a Black woman and a gay man. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;It&#39;s hard to hear ... he couldn&#39;t be on the ticket, effectively, because he was gay,&quot; Maddow said. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harris said &ldquo;it wasn&#39;t about any prejudice on my part&rdquo; but &ldquo;we had such a short period of time, and the stakes were so high.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;It made me very sad, but I also realized it would be a real risk,&rdquo; she said. Harris conceded &ldquo;maybe I was being too cautious.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buttigieg told Politico he was &ldquo;surprised&rdquo; by the passage in the book about him. He also said he believes in &ldquo;giving Americans more credit.&rdquo;

Biden and Kamala Harris at President Donald Trump's inauguration 

Americas

In her first live TV interview since the election, former Vice President Kamala Harris reflected on her book “107 Days,” saying she regrets not challenging President Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection in 2024.

Articles tagged with "campaign"

France’s ex-president Sarkozy jailed for 5 years in campaign finance conspiracy

Kamala Harris reflects on Biden campaign, calls inaction ‘recklessness’