Bruni used police reports to prove Dati behind plot

A new biography of Carla Bruni claims she was the victim of an extraordinary plot by former justice minister Rachida Dati and Nicolas Sarkozy's one-time sister-in-law to remove her from the Elysee Palace earlier this year, and reinstate the president's ex-wife, Cecilia, as First Lady.

Michael Darmon and Yves Derai, the authors of Carla and the Ambitious, published this week in Paris, say they have evidence of a top-level government conspiracy.

The two writers were investigating how rumours started earlier this year that both Nicolas and Carla were having extramarital affairs – she, supposedly, with the singer Benjamin Biolay, he with his ecology minister, Chantal Jouanno.

Rachida Dati (pictured above with Bruni in March 2009), who had been fired by Sarkozy as justice minister in 2009, was always suspected by Carla Bruni - if not others - of starting the rumours which began circulating in March this year.

Almost immediately, it was reported that the Sarkozys, fearing political motivation, had asked the police to investigate who was behind the rumours.
 
Darmon and Derai claim to have proof that the French police gave Bruni a file containing evidence of the conspiracy against her.

They say it shows not only that Dati was involved in spreading the rumours but, more seriously, that she and Sophie Douzal, the former wife of Sarkozy's brother Francois, wanted to remove Bruni from the Elysee Palace because she was seen as a threat to Sarkozy's chances of re-election.
 
Even more astonishing, the plotters planned to persuade Sarkozy's former wife Cecilia - who left him in 2007 and who is now remarried and living in New York - to return to his side as First Lady.
 
According to the book, on learning of the alleged conspiracy, the proactive Bruni is said to have phoned Cecilia personally, telling her: "Two people with whom you are in contact are behaving in an unacceptable manner towards us... I am not talking about suspicious or malicious gossip. I have a police report that you are welcome to see. I know you have nothing to do with them but I suggest you keep your distance."
 
Carla and the Ambitious also claims to shed light on the life of another First Lady, America's Michelle Obama. According to the book, Carla  once asked Michelle about life in the White House, and got the response: "Don't ask! It's hell. I can't stand it!"
 
However, spokesmen for both Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni deny the conversation ever took place. And the Elysee Palace has also denied that Bruni co-operated Darmon and Derai's book. The authors have claimed it was written in collaboration with the First Lady. ·