Mimi Marchand, considered the queen of the tabloid press in France, a close relative of former President Nicolas Sarkozy and became a faithful defender of the image of Emmanuel Macron and his wife, will be tried from Paris next month, being accused of blackmailing a television presenter, writes AFP.
The contours of his activity at the Presidential Palace have always remained vague, pendulating between communication and photojournalism.
Michelle “Mimi” Marchand, 78 years old, is a woman who was acting in the shadow before public opinion about her judicial adventures related to the Takieddine scandal on the Libyan financing suspicions of the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, notes the French press agency, according to Agerpres.
In her life, “she did everything,” according to journalists Jean-Michel Decugis (Le Parisien), Marc Leplongeon (Le Point) and Pauline Guena novelist, the authors of the book “Mimi”, an unauthorized biography that was published by the Grasset Publishing House in 2019.
Holding car services, nightclub owner, police friend, hooligans and Parisian nightlife, has built over the years a number of friends and contacts in which he used in his tabloid press.
Starting on Monday, June 2, Mimi Marchand will be tried at the Paris Correctional Court for a file dating from February 2020 and facing the presenter of the television show “L'amour est dans le pré”, on the M6 channel, Karine Le Marchand.
The minor daughter of the TV presenter had been photographed a few days earlier, while leaving the police arrest, where she had been detained for cannabis purchase. Karine Le Marchand found this because of “a source”, which could “block” the publication of photos in exchange for a payment. But the TV presenter is convinced that the paparas must have been informed by the police. She filed a complaint with the General Inspection of the National Police of France (IGPN), nicknamed the “Police Police”.
She doesn't say it yet, but that source is Mimi Marchand.
After the arrest, Mimi Marchand warned the famous TV presenter that “a young photographer” unknown came to his Bestimages agency with those photos. “I quarreled, I told him that it was stupid, because your daughter is a minor and that you do not even appear in photos, which are invaluable,” she said, saying that she recovered the images for 3,000 euros. “Do not worry, they will not be published,” Mimi Marchand told.
“Thank you Mimi, I have a debt. I already owe you some money. My daughter is my princess, she already suffers because she has a famous mother, I want her to be quiet (and without scandals),” the host of the television show answered. A lunch was organized quickly, Karine Le Marchand “reimbursed” about half the amount and promised to complete the remaining difference.
But the time was passing. And Mimi Marchand contacted her during the summer.
“What a pity for the little one …”
Karine Le Marchand replies: “How are you? I owe you some money, I didn't forget.”
“We regulate this in the fall, the times are difficult. I would not have allowed you to disturb you again,” Mimi Marchand told him.
A year later, the TV presenter contacted the IGPN: she was declared “harassed” by Mimi Marchand, who asked her to contact her. The TV presenter said she was too busy at that time and that Mimi Marchand wrote the following phrase: “It will be too late … what a pity for the little one.”
During the interrogation, Mimi Marchand challenged any form of pressure and gave assurance by saying that journalist Karine Le Marchand was the one who “insisted” to give him money.
The queen of the tabloid press in France explained that she contacted the television presenter on the phone so that she would prepare a public statement if the scandal was to be revealed in the press. Instead, justice suspects that he has acted to get in possession of the photos in order to put this blackmail into practice.
The investigation revealed, in fact, that the photographer was not an unknown young man, but the famous paparazzo Sebastien Valiela (and he was judged in the trial), 53 years old.
Several police are also judged for providing this paparazzo to arrest the young woman.
These policemen also appear in another file, which will be tried at the same time as the trial filed by Karine Le Marchand. They are suspected of giving the photographer information about the imminent arrest of the writer Alexandra de Taddeo and her life partner of that period, Piot Pavlenski.
Photos with the Russian artist, a refugee in France in 2017, surprised as he was lying on the ground and with his hands handcuffed behind, appeared on the front page of Paris Match magazine, although the publication of such images is forbidden by French legislation.
