He claims a simple role of "legal adviser". The lawyer Juan Branco, a fierce critic of macronie, explains that he was consulted by the Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski before the famous pornographic video attributed to Benjamin Griveaux is put online. "We discussed together the risks involved as well as the legal framework, details the lawyer. I made sure that he was fully aware of the risks he was taking and that he was not acting impulsively. "
The author of the anti-Macron pamphlet "Crépuscule" also states that he helped the Russian activist "verify his source". "I checked the tangible items in his possession to make sure he didn't fall into a plot," he explains.
"It is absolutely not a destabilization operation"
The lawyer, who has been increasing attacks on the government for several months, fully supports the act claimed by the Russian artist with whom he is close. "It is clearly a political gesture," he insists. He is a political opponent to Putin and, faced with the very similar hardening of our regime, he felt that he had the obligation to become an opponent by any means necessary. He wanted to denounce the tartufferie of Benjamin Griveaux and the double speech of the one who presents himself in celebrity magazines as a defender of the family to win votes, but whose actions are in total contradiction. Beyond that, it is a question of denouncing a regime which flatters and mutilates its opponents and no longer fits into a democratic framework. It is absolutely not a destabilization operation, but a very constructed statement. "
A maximalist discourse which joins that of the lawyer, who has become a totemic figure of the radical fringe of yellow vests. "He did not come to see me by chance," admits Juan Branco.
"I never incited anyone to act in this or that way"
While the political class unanimously denounces an intolerable invasion of privacy and a nauseating climate, the lawyer counter-attacks on his favorite ground. "Yes, the climate is frightening when 10,000 people are arrested when they simply wanted to demonstrate and 25 people are counted dead," he says. "If, in such a climate, politicians have nothing to do but take offense at a violation of privacy, then we have an explanation for the serious crisis of representativeness that we are going through. Let them come and victimize themselves, I find it indecent, ”he dares.
VIDEO. Piotr Pavlenski: "I opened the site" which caused Benjamin Griveaux to withdraw
According to our colleagues from Le Point, the virulent lawyer would have played a more active role in this sequence, by soliciting several people at the beginning of the month on the means of broadcasting the video. "I don't know what they're referring to," he retorts. Piotr Pavlenski built his own site himself and didn't need me. Juan Branco even denies having encouraged his friend to act. "I never incited anyone to act in this or that way," he says. On the contrary. I alerted him to the risks to which he was exposed, but I told him that, if he decided, I would accompany him. "
READ ALSO> What risk those who have broadcast these images?
While Benjamin Griveaux's lawyer told us that he was thinking about filing a complaint, his counterpart pretended not to be worried. "I would be very happy to confront Benjamin Griveaux in court," he says bravely. And the lawyer, who made himself famous by publicly revealing the homosexuality of Secretary of State Gabriel Attal, to suddenly become threatening: "Given the elements in our possession, it is rather Benjamin Griveaux who exposes to legal proceedings. Because you can imagine that, if he resigned so quickly, it was because he was aware that it was not just that. But it is not a question of leading a cabal against him. It still looks furiously.
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According to Mediapart, Piotr Pavlenski is the subject of a research file, suspected of having assaulted two people with a knife during New Years Eve party on December 31 last. This celebration, which took place on boulevard Saint-Germain (Paris Ve), would have been co-organized by Juan Branco. A preliminary investigation is under way. Solicited, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Benard, Piotr Pavlenski's lawyer, told us that she had "no comments to make".
