Brigitte Macron and her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, make a lawsuit against a radical influencer who has spread a conspiracy theory over the French premiere lady. This is reported, among other things Financial Timeswho had access to court documents.
It is about Influencer Candace Owens. She is an arch -conservative American, who with its nearly six million Instagram followers is a fame in extremely right -wing circles. Last year she spoke at the party congress of Forum for Democracy. There she stated that she now embraces the outrage she evokes: “They call your transfobes, homophobic or sexist – or, even worse, a conspiracy thinker. You just have to accept those nicknames.”
The case revolves around Becoming Brigittean eight -part video series that Owens released this year. In it she states that Brigitte Macron would actually be her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux who would have changed slaughtered. This theory was also repeated in several podcasts that Owens distributed via social media. The series now has more than 2.3 million views on YouTube.
In addition, Owens suggested that Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron would actually be related to each other, and that Emmanuel is the product of “a CIA experiment or a similar government program for mental manipulation”.
In their indictment, submitted to a court in the US state of Delaware, the macrons state that Owens is conducting a “lies -filled campaign of global humiliation”, aimed at promoting its podcast and obtaining more followers. They demand compensation.
With such American defamation cases, the burden of proof lies with the public figures themselves. They must prove that there is’Actual Malice“That is, the accused knew that the claims were false or that the accused deliberately dealt with the truth recklessly.
Previous lawsuit
It is not the first time that the macrons legally defend themselves against this conspiracy theory. In an earlier case in France, two women – the self -proclaimed spiritual medium Amandine Roy and the independent journalist Natacha Rey – were convicted for defamation. In 2021 they distributed a four -hour video with the same allegations as the one who Owens. In the video, private images of Brigitte Macron and her children were also shown.
The video was viewed more than 400,000 times and the subject was trending on Twitter for days, just before the French presidential election. The macrons then felt forced to respond publicly and to strongly deny the rumors.
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Candace Owens spoke last year at party congress of Forum for Democracy.