French President Macron, wife Brigitte sue Candace Owens for defamation from transgender claim

CNBC

a day ago

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, on Wednesday sued right-wing provocateur podcaster Candace Owens for repeatedly falsely claiming that Brigitte Macron "is in fact a man."
The Macrons' 22-count civil lawsuit accusing Owens of defamation and false light alleges that Owens, since March 2024, has "used this false statement" about Brigitte Macron "to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money."
"Owens disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in favor of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers," the lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court says.
"And rather than engage with President and Mrs. Macron's attempts to set the record straight, Owens mocked them and used them as additional fodder for her frenzied fan base," says the suit, which notes that Brigitte Macron bore three children from her first husband.
The complaint says that Owens' allegedly knowingly false statements about the Macrons include claims that they are blood relatives who have committed incest, and that President Macron was chosen to be president as part of a CIA-operated program or "similar mind-control program."
The statements were made in an eight-part podcast, "Becoming Brigitte," and in accompanying posts on the social media site X, the suit says.
"These lies have caused tremendous damage to the Macrons," the suit says. The complaint seeks monetary damages to be determined at trial.
The Macrons are being represented in the suit by the law firm Clare Locke.
Clare Locke in April 2023 with another law firm, obtained a $787.5 million settlement for the voting machine company Dominion Voting System from Fox Corp. and its cable networks, including Fox News, to resolve a defamation suit related to claims about the 2020 presidential election.
"If ever there was a clear-cut case of defamation, this is it," said the firm's attorney Tom Clare, about the lawsuit filed by the Macrons.
The Macrons, in a statement, said, "Because Ms. Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys' repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue for remedy."
"Ms. Owens' campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety. We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused," the couple said.
"It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all."
A spokesperson for Owens, in a statement to CNBC, said "Candace Owens is not shutting up. This is a foreign government attacking the First Amendment rights of an American independent journalist."
"Candace repeatedly requested an interview with Brigitte Macron," the spokesperson said. "Instead of offering a comment, Brigitte is resorting to trying to bully a reporter into submission."
"In France, politicians can bully journalists, but this is not France. It's America. Candace will address everything on her show today, where she will continue to express her First Amendment rights."
Owens, on July 2, published on her website a letter from Clare Locke to her attorney demanding that Owens "and the entities she controls retract her false and defamatory statements" about the Macrons.