The lawyer of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, owner of the "Palais Vivienne" implicated by a report from M6 for the organization of clandestine dinners in Paris, assured AFP this Sunday evening that his client was only doing "Humor" when he said ministers attended such meals.
“Pierre-Jean Chalençon, a great collector of Napoleon's objects, has always enjoyed using humor [...].
This is how, when he specifies that he dines with ministers in illegal restaurants, he brilliantly handles the meaning of the absurd ... ”, declared his lawyer Me Jean-Luc Chetboun, in a press release sent to AFP.
Caviar, champagne, menus from top chefs and compulsory mask removal ... Our journalists were able to enter these high standing clandestine parties which are currently being held in Paris.
🎥 @ frvignolle Armelle Mehani and @CyrielleStadler exclusively for 📺 # 19h45 pic.twitter.com/ClXpIWrVwZ
- M6info (@ m6info) April 2, 2021
The Paris prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, opened a criminal investigation this Sunday after a report by M6 on these high-end dinners - banned during a pandemic - during which an anonymous source assured the channel that ministers were participating in this kind of meal.
By the two sentences of the press release from his lawyer, Pierre-Jean Chalençon - already identified by the media and Internet users as this source - finally recognizes being this person who spoke in disguised voiceover to M6.
Gabriel Attal quoted last February
The private channel had broadcast Friday evening a report on a hidden camera in a place presented as "an underground restaurant located in the beautiful districts", where the participants and the waiters do not wear masks and do not respect barrier gestures, despite the epidemic linked to Covid-19.
Faced with the controversy, several members of the government excluded, this Sunday, that one of them could participate in such a dinner.
"I do not believe for a single second," said Gabriel Attal, spokesman for the government, on LCI.
In an interview broadcast at the beginning of February on YouTube, Pierre-Jean Chalençon declared his intention to create a “gastronomes club”, the “Vivienne's club”, with his “friend Christophe Leroy”, where he would receive “twice a month for lunch or having dinner ".
The Palais Vivienne, which he owns, offers “560m² of reception rooms”, according to him.
"We can afford to receive 6-8-10 people in different rooms," he added.
In a video published on February 1 on YouTube, Pierre-Jean Chalançon evokes the dinners organized with Christophe Leroy.
And he says: "My friend Attal is due for dinner soon" (via @MichelEpicetou) pic.twitter.com/anIQDJnr4c
- Sylvain Chazot (@sychazot) April 4, 2021
In the interview broadcast at the end of February, Chalençon referred to his “friends in the government”, and in particular Gabriel Attal, assuring him: he “must come to dinner soon”.
“Gabriel Attal discovered this excerpt this evening on Twitter with a lot of astonishment.
He does not know Mr. Chalençon and has obviously never participated in any dinner or evening.
As he indicated at the end of the afternoon on LCI, he attaches the greatest importance to the exemplary nature of the members of the government in this period ”, indicated the entourage of the spokesperson to AFP.
