Lawyer who bought Fillon’s suits says candidate ‘told him to lie’
Robert Bourgi was under “political pressure” to cover up his 13,000-euro gift of two luxury suits to conservative candidate François Fillon, French news website Mediapart reported on Friday.
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“François Fillon and his high priestess of communications, Anne Méaux, didn’t want me to say anything regarding the identity of the person who gave Fillon the suits: me,” Bourgi said, according to a Mediapart interview published Friday.
“I was subjected to – or at least, one tried to subject me to – political pressure,” he said. “But I’m a free man, and I don’t give in to pressure.”
French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) reported in March that Fillon had received clothing worth thousands of euros from an anonymous benefactor.
A few days after the initial report was published, Robert Bourgi confirmed to French media that he was effectively the wealthy benefactor behind Fillon’s luxury clothing gifts. However, this came after Bourgi was “obliged to lie for a week” to the press, he told Mediapart, adding that he “personally spoke with [Fillon] multiple times” on the matter.
Bourgi, a lawyer and political adviser born in Senegal, has been considered a key figure in Franco-African relations for decades. He has advised former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as former Gabonese president Omar Bongo.
“I asked them why,” Bourgi told Mediapart. “They told me: ‘you know, it concerns Franco-African relations, people won’t know what to think.’”
The suit revelation led to the opening of an investigation into possible influence peddling.
After the French media brought the suit story to light, Fillon said he had been “wrong” to accept the gifted clothing and turned it in to the police.
Bourgi said the suits were given to Fillon “as a gift for winning the right-wing primary.”
“He didn’t know in advance,” the lawyer said, adding that the candidate had been “very touched” by the gesture.
Fillon has yet to respond to the Mediapart interview, which has reported that the revelations led Bourgi to leave Paris for Beirut, so as to avoid the “media burden”.
Despite the controversy, the lawyer said he will still vote for the conservative candidate.
“Frankly, I can’t imagine voting for anyone else but Fillon. He’s part of my tribe.”
However, he did name his surprising second choice candidate: hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
“I hope [Mélenchon] will forgive me: it’s because he stirs up the pot, and I like that,” he said.
The first round of voting in France’s hotly contested presidential election will take place 23 April. The top two candidates will advance to a second run-off round 7 May.
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