A Paris court found Monday, January 5, 10 people guilty of cyber-harassing France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron. The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.
Eight defendants were handed suspended terms of four to eight months, while a ninth man was sentenced to six months in jail over his absence from the hearing. They and a tenth person were ordered to follow a course against hate speech online. Three individuals considered to be the key instigators online also had their social media accounts suspended for six months.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, were accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was born a man and linking the 24-year age gap with her husband to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.
Presiding judge Thierry Donard described the claims of the French first lady’s “alleged paedophilia” as “malicious, degrading and insulting,” saying the defendants had received sentences for “intentionally harming the complainant.”
“The most important things are the prevention courses and the suspension of some of the accounts” of the perpetrators, said Jean Ennochi, Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, after the verdict was handed down.
Lawsuit filed in the US
The relationship between Emmanuel Macron, 48, and Brigitte, 72, who met while she was a drama teacher at his school, has been the subject of intense interest since he became president in 2017. But in recent years, this scrutiny has extended to the widespread publication of false information, which the first couple have resolved not to ignore and instead combat in court.
They have filed a defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing US podcaster Candace Owens, who falsely claimed the spouse of the French president used to be a man.
The Paris trial, a separate case, concerned 10 defendants from different walks of life. Brigitte Macron herself did not appear at the trial hearings on October but told investigators after filing her complaint that the claim she is a transgender woman has “strongly affected” her and her loved ones. Speaking on TF1 national television Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
Prosecutors sought the heaviest sentence against Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, a commentator known on social media as “Zoé Sagan” and often linked to conspiracy theory circles. He was handed an eight-month suspended sentence and a six-month suspension of his social media accounts. In court in October, he defended his right to what he called “satire.”
Another of the most prominent defendants, gallery owner Bertrand Scholler, 56, said that the trial was targeting his “freedom to think” faced with the “media deep state.” The court sentenced Scholler to a six-month suspended sentence and an immediate suspension of his social media accounts for six months.
Also on trial was a woman already the subject of a libel complaint filed by Brigitte Macron in 2022: Delphine J., 51, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium who goes by the pseudonym Amandine Roy. The court sentenced Delphine J. to a six-month suspended jail term and the suspension of her online accounts, also for half a year.
‘Image distorted’
Tiphaine Auzière, 41, Brigitte Macron’s younger daughter from her first marriage, told the trial in rare public comments that the unsubstantiated claims had harmed the French first lady’s health. “She’s constantly having to pay attention to what she wears, how she holds herself because she knows that her image can be distorted,” she said. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
Emerging as early as Macron’s election in 2017, the claims have been amplified by far-right and conspiracy theorist circles in France and in the United States, where transgender rights have become a hot-button issue at the heart of American culture wars.
In the US case against Owens, who produced a series titled “Becoming Brigitte,” the Macrons are planning to offer “scientific” evidence and photos proving that the first lady is not transgender, according to their US lawyer. Several of those on trial in Paris shared posts from the US influencer.