France’s ex-president Sarkozy to face a corruption trial

PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is being ordered to stand trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, in yet another humbling knockdown to the hard-charging conservative leader.

Sarkozy has faced multiple corruption investigations since leaving office in 2012. He was handed preliminary charges just last week in the most shocking affair: accusations that he took millions in illegal campaign financing from thenLibyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

In a separate case, a judicial official said Thursday that Sarkozy was ordered to stand trial on accusations that he tried to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about yet another investigation involving Sarkozy.

The former president, 63, can appeal the order, and no potential trial date has been set. He has denied wrongdoing.

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, is also being ordered to stand trial, along with former magistrate Gilbert Azibert. Sarkozy and Herzog did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Sarkozy has objected to the case because part of the investigation is based on information gleaned from tapped phone conversations between him and his lawyer.

Sarkozy and Herzog are suspected of promising the magistrate a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about an investigation into suspected illegal financing of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign by France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Sarkozy failed to win his party’s primary for the 2017 presidential election and has largely stayed out of politics since then.