Ten people face trial accused of cyberbullying French president’s wife Brigitte Macron

PARIS AP Ten people will go on trial on Monday over cyberbullying of Brigitte Macron after they allegedly made malicious comments online spreading contends that President Emmanuel Macron s wife is a man The Paris prosecutor s office disclosed the eight men and two women are accused of spreading numerous malicious comments online about the first lady s gender and sexuality and of mentioning her age gap with her husband as paedophilia Aged between and specific of the defendants are very working on the social media with posts sometimes cumulating dozens of thousands of views A woman presenting herself as a medium and an advertising executive whose X account has since been suspended are considered as having played a major role in spreading the rumor Others include an elected official a lecturer and a computer scientist The Macrons have for years been dogged by conspiracy theories that Brigitte was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux who supposedly then took the name Brigitte as a transgender woman Jean-Michel Trogneux is the name of Brigitte s brother The two-day trial in Paris comes after the Macrons filed a defamation suit in July in a Delaware court as their lawyer revealed they ll be seeking substantial damages from U S conservative influencer Candace Owens if she persists with indicates that Brigitte is a man Owens is a right-leaning political commentator whose YouTube channel has about million subscribers In she was denied a visa from New Zealand and Australia citing remarks in which she denied Nazi clinical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II A verdict in the Paris situation will likely be issued at a later date In September Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against two women who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the maintains about the first lady online A Paris appeals court overturned the ruling in July Brigitte and her brother have since turned to France s highest court to appeal that decision The Macrons who have been married since first met at the high school where he was a attendee and she was a tutor Brigitte Macron years her husband s senior was then called Brigitte Auzi re a married mother of three Emmanuel Macron has been France s president since Source