A Parisian judicial court delivered a significant verdict on Monday, convicting ten individuals for the coordinated cyber-harassment of Brigitte Macron, the First Lady of France. The defendants were found guilty of orchestrating a malicious online campaign that propagated the demonstrably false claim that she is a transgender woman born male.
The long-standing conspiracy theory, which falsely alleges Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux—a name that actually belongs to her older brother—has plagued the presidential couple for years. While the Macrons had previously chosen to ignore the barrage of criticism focused on their 24-year age gap, this ruling signals a decisive shift in their legal strategy to confront such disinformation through the judicial system.
This conviction represents a strategic legal victory for the Macrons, who are concurrently pursuing a separate, high-profile defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing commentator Candace Owens for repeating the same false allegations. The ten convicted individuals—eight men and two women—were found to have engaged in targeted harassment concerning the First Lady’s gender and sexuality, with some comments outrageously equating the couple’s consensual adult relationship to criminal behavior.
The case unfolds against a backdrop of intensifying transatlantic debates on the boundaries of free speech and disinformation. The defendants’ argument that their malicious comments constituted protected satirical expression was firmly rejected by the court. One convicted individual, Bertrand Scholler, a 55-year-old gallerist, received a six-month suspended sentence and announced his intention to appeal, decrying the verdict as evidence of a societal drift away from free speech.
In a powerful response, Brigitte Macron emphasized the profound personal impact of the harassment, pointing to the irrefutable evidence of her birth certificate. She framed her legal stance as a necessary example for vulnerable adolescents, stating, ‘A birth certificate is not nothing… I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult.’