While he had an office, a secretary and a telephone line at RPR headquarters in the rue de Lille, his name did not even appear in the city hall telephone directory.
If the judge, Catherine Pierce, is really determined to establish Juppe's degree of personal responsibility, she is likely to ask him some potentially embarrassing questions about Chirac's role in running the party. Juppe has always insisted the president was never involved in such mundane matters as party financing.
The president, who has been named in half-a-dozen different corruption and malpractice scandals, was declared immune from prosecution -- and even from questioning -- by France's highest court last year as long as he remained in office. It would, however, prove a major embarrassment to the president if the court convicted Juppe, one of his most loyal and valued lieutenants.
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