PARIS -- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, are filing a complaint for privacy violations after personal conversations recorded by an ex-aide were released on a French website.

The recordings involved Bruni as well as several people in Sarkozy's inner circle and came out jointly in the weekly paper Canard Enchaine and the website Atlantico. Sarkozy and Bruni, who are heard joking about their finances, were seeking an emergency injunction in the case, his lawyers said Thursday.

The former aide, Patrick Buisson, also went on the attack -- against an unidentified defendant X who, his lawyer Gilles-William Goldnadel told BFM television, "stole the recordings for their misuse." Goldnadel acknowledged that Buisson made the recordings, which he said were to help the aide keep accurate records.