Candace Owens responds to defamation lawsuit filed by French president, first lady
The Macrons said in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court on July 23 that Owens has waged a "campaign of global humiliation" and engaged in "relentless bullying" against the 72-year-old Brigitte to "promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money." The 219-page lawsuit details dozens of the podcaster's claims made over several months, and includes corresponding photographs, screenshots and archived newspaper clippings.
Owens responded to the lawsuit in her July 24 episode of her eponymous podcast "Candace," spending more than 30 minutes criticizing the legal action, the Macrons and doubling down on her claims.
"I think you're sick," Owens said, addressing France's first couple. "I think you're disgusting, and I am fully prepared to take on this battle."
The Macrons are suing Owens, her media company and the company that runs her website for 22 counts of defamation and defamation-related claims, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages. They are represented by Clare Locke and Farnan LLP, well-known firms specializing in high-profile defamation cases, who helped win a $790 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News brought by Dominion Voting Systems in 2023.
More: French president sues Candace Owens over claim about wife Brigitte
Owens has been repeating false claims over the first lady's identity for more than a year, the lawsuit alleges, starting in March 2024 when the podcaster stated she stakes her "entire professional reputation" that Brigitte Macron "is in fact a man.' In January, Owens released the first episode in an eight-part podcast series entitled, "Becoming Brigitte," in which the lawsuit says she presented various "outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions." The filing says they include allegations by Owens that Brigitte was born a man and stole someone's identity, that Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron are blood relatives and that they have committed "forgery, fraud and abuses of power to conceal these secrets."
The filing alleges that Owens ignored the Macrons' requests to retract the allegations.
"Owens has dissected their appearance, their marriage, their friends, their family, and their personal history — twisting it all into a grotesque narrative designed to inflame and degrade," the complaint said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Owens said the filing represented a "foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist."
Owens has attracted criticism for years over her commentaries on a range of topics, with a history of spreading antisemitic rhetoric, including Holocaust denial and revisionism. She was suspended from YouTube for a week in September after videos of several of her interviews were deemed as hate speech by the Google subsidiary. In the following two months, authorities in New Zealand and Australia rejected her visas to visit the countries ahead of her speaking tour in February and March 2025. Local media reported Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke mentioned her rhetoric "downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about (German SS officer Josef) Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery," as reasons for her visa denial.
Wednesday's lawsuit is a rare case of a world leader suing for defamation. To prevail in U.S. defamation cases, public figures like the Macrons must show defendants engaged in "actual malice," meaning they knew what they published was false or had reckless disregard for its truth.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Khanna: ‘Time has come' to recognize Palestinian state
At least 11 progressive House Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), have signed onto a letter calling for the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state in the wake of moves by several American allies to do so before the United Nations convenes in September. 'Recognizing a Palestinian state is an idea whose time has come. The response of my colleagues has been overwhelming,' Khanna wrote on X. 'We will build support and release prior to the UN convening.' The letter was first reported by Jewish Insider. In the same post, Khanna charged that someone had leaked the letter to the paper in order to 'sabotage' the effort. Signatories, Jewish Insider reported, include Texas Democrats Reps. Greg Casar, Veronica Escobar, Lloyd Doggett and Al Green, alongside Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.). Prominent progressives Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) also signed on. Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, has also signed the letter, Khanna's office confirmed to The Hill. The letter follows announcements from France, Canada and the United Kingdom that they would move towards recognizing a Palestinian state. France plans to do so at the U.N. in September, while Canada said recognition was contingent on demilitarization and holding democratic elections without Hamas. The U.K. plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September if a ceasefire is not reached by then. The moves by the members of the Group of Seven are largely symbolic, but they signal growing diplomatic pressure on Israel over a worsening hunger and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A draft of the letter from Democratic lawmakers circulated July 31 states that recognition by the U.S. — an unlikely prospect regardless — would be contingent on a Palestinian state recognizing Israel and adopting 'a framework to guarantee Israel's security, including the disarmament of and relinquishing of power by Hamas.' 'We believe recognizing Palestinian statehood and obligating Palestinian leaders to abide by the international law binding on states and their governments will make that far more achievable and sustainable than decades of statelessness and repression have,' the draft letter reads. The Palestinian Authority is currently an observer state at the United Nations, meaning it cannot vote (the Vatican holds the same status). There have been efforts to make the Palestinian Authority a full member state, which requires the assent of the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. holds veto power, alongside a two-thirds vote from the U.N. general assembly. The United States blocked a move for full Palestinian membership in April 2024.
Buzz Feed
5 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Best Political Tweets 8-1-2025
American politics — well, frankly, global politics — is chaos right now, but I find it comforting to know I'm not alone in thinking the world has gone bananas. So, here are 25 of the best, most relatable, and sometimes funny political tweets from the last week: Note: The image of Omar Fateh in the original tweet was replaced here due to photo rights. Note: The image of Trump in the original tweet was replaced here due to photo rights. Note: The image of Trump in the original tweet was replaced here due to photo rights. See you next week!
Hamilton Spectator
5 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Lawyer says he's not been allowed to see 5 immigrants deported by the US to a prison in Eswatini
MANZINI, Eswatini (AP) — Five immigrants deported by the United States to Eswatini in a secret deal last month had served their criminal sentences before they were sent to be held in a prison in the African country, a lawyer working on their cases said Friday. The Eswatini lawyer also said the men from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam sent to southern Africa under President Donald Trump's third-country deportation program have been denied access to legal representation while being held in Eswatini's main maximum-security prison. The lawyer, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, said he hasn't been allowed to see the men and that he filed court papers Thursday against the head of Eswatini's correctional services department and the country's attorney general, demanding access to them. He said he is representing them on behalf of lawyers in the U.S. and was prevented from seeing them by Eswatini prison officials on July 25. It's unlawful for the men, who have been in Eswatini for around two weeks, to be denied access to a lawyer, he added. The Eswatini government has said the men will be held in solitary confinement until they can be deported to their home countries, which could take up to a year. 'They have served their sentences,' Nhlabatsi told The Associated Press. 'If a person has committed a crime and they have served a sentence, why are you then keeping them in a prison?' Nhlabatsi said the men have not been able to communicate with their families or receive visitors since arriving in Eswatini, although prison officials said they were in the process of setting up devices to allow them to speak with their families. He alleged their ongoing detention could have legal implications for Eswatini, a small country bordering South Africa and one of the world's last absolute monarchies , ruled by a king accused of cracking down on dissent. The Trump administration has come under scrutiny for its choice of African countries to strike deportation deals with. It deported eight immigrants described as violent criminals to South Sudan in early July in an operation that was halted by a legal challenge in the U.S. The eight were held for weeks in a converted shipping container at an American military base in nearby Djibouti while the case was decided. A Supreme Court ruling eventually cleared the way for them to be sent to South Sudan. Both South Sudan, which is in danger of tipping into civil war, and Eswatini have poor rights records and governments accused of being repressive. Critics say the deportees, who the administration says were in the U.S. illegally, will likely be denied due process in those countries. The five sent to Eswatini were also described by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as serious criminals. Their convictions included murder and child rape, the department said in social media posts, calling them 'uniquely barbaric.' The department, which did not say if they had completed their sentences, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. An Eswatini government spokesman also declined to comment on Nhlabatsi's allegations, saying it was now a matter for the courts. Nhlabatsi said the deportees are being held at the Matsapha Correctional Complex near the administrative capital, Mbabane, the same prison said to hold pro-democracy activists on trumped up charges. The government has declined to say where the five men are being held, citing security concerns. Eswatini's statement about the five men ultimately being deported to their home countries appears to contradict claims by the U.S. that their home countries refused to take the men back. Activists in Eswatini have demanded that the details of the agreement with the U.S. be made public but the government has said they are 'classified.' South Sudan has also declined to give details of its agreement to take deportees from the U.S. ___ AP news on the Trump administration: Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
