Journaliste à Mediapart depuis sa création, en 2008, j’ai couvert la droite et l'extrême droite, avant de rejoindre le service « Enquêtes » en 2017.
• Livres : - Faute de preuves : une enquête sur la justice face aux révélations #MeToo (Seuil, 2021). - « Marine est au courant de tout...» : Argent secret, financements et hommes de l'ombre : une enquête sur Marine Le Pen (co-écrit avec Mathias Destal, Flammarion, 2017). - Informer n'est pas un délit(ouvrage collectif, Calmann-Lévy, 2015).
In the interest of transparency towards its readers, Mediapart’s journalists fill out and make public since 2018 a declaration of interests on the model of the one filled out by members of parliament and senior civil servants with the High Authority for Transparency and Public Life (HATVP), a body created in 2014 after Mediapart’s revelations on the Cahuzac affair.
On July 6th 2018, a former casting director wrote to the Paris public prosecutor claiming she had been 'sexually assaulted' by the acclaimed French film director and producer Luc Besson. This follows allegations of rape detailed in a formal complaint on May 18th by the actress Sand Van Roy against Besson, and a further complaint by Van Roy on July 6th. After an investigation lasting several months, Mediapart can reveal the stories of several women who describe sexually inappropriate behaviour by Besson, best known for blockbuster films such as 'Nikita', ‘The Big Blue’, 'Leon', ‘The Fifth Element’, and more recently 'Lucy', and who has vehemently denied all the allegations against him. Marine Turchi, Lénaig Bredoux and Geoffrey Le Guilcher report.
Ten men, including a former gendarme, have been arrested across France for their suspected role in a plot to attack Muslims. Mediapart can reveal that one of the suspects had been setting up his own laboratory to make explosives. Matthieu Suc, Marine Turchi and Jacques Massey report on the story behind the dramatic arrests and the murky world of the far-right in France.
Mediapart has obtained a copy of the contract for the 9 million euro loan that a Russian bank gave to France's far-right Front National (FN) in 2014. The document answers some of the questions in this murky affair but many remain. The bank later went bankrupt, its former director is wanted for alleged misappropriation of funds, the FN's loan has been sold on at least twice, and it is still not clear to whom it has to be repaid. Marine Turchi and Agathe Duparc report.
The European Parliament is poised to launch proceedings to reclaim “non-compliant” expenses from the far-right parliamentary grouping that includes France's Front National, Mediapart has learnt. The total amount of the expenses involved, which include “unreasonable” claims of meals costing 400 euros a person, and the purchase of 228 bottles of champagne as gifts, comes to 427,000 euros. Ludovic Lamant and Marine Turchi report.
An investigation into rape allegations against France's budget and public accounts minister, Gérald Darmanin, who denied them, has been dropped by prosecutors. But a complaint from another woman against the minister is now the subject of a preliminary investigation, amid allegations that as a mayor Darmanin abused his influence to gain sexual favours – claims he denies. The offence of “influence peddling” is often present in financial and fraud cases, but as Marine Turchi and Antton Rouget report, it can also be a suitable charge in cases of alleged “sexual corruption”.
French far-right Front National party leader Marine Le Pen was once tipped as the likely winner of last year’s presidential elections, sending shockwaves across Europe, before she finally lost to Emmanuel Macron. In the build-up of her campaign, and little known to the wider public, her policy programme was developed with the help of senior French civil servants, dubbed by her party as “night-time visitors” and whose names were kept secret. But in this joint investigation, Mediapart and Buzzfeed have obtained access to documents which reveal the true identities of several of them. They are nearly all graduates of France’s elite higher education schools and include former members of France’s Council of State and the French national audit body, along with a prefect and advisor to the director-general of the French gendarmerie, and a director of a major French construction firm. Marine Turchi and David Dufresne report.
The prominent Islamic intellectual, scholar and preacher Tariq Ramadan has taken leave of absence from his post as professor at Oxford University after being accused of rape and violent assault by two women who last month filed formal complaints against him in France. Other French women have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment and domination, and in Switzerland former female pupils of his have accused him of sexual advances, including one who was aged just 14 at the time of the reported events. Ramadan has vigorously denied the allegations, denouncing “a campaign of calumny”. Marine Turchi investigates the claims and the reasons why they have emerged so late after the alleged events.
The European Union's anti-fraud office has called for France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen to pay back hundreds of thousands of euros in staff allowances. Officials say Le Pen, president of the Front National (FN), wrongly paid two of her staff out of EU funds in her capacity as a Member of the European parliament when in fact they were mostly engaged in internal party work. In a joint investigation with magazine Marianne, Mediapart can also reveal that French prosecution authorities have broadened their probe into the financing of around 20 FN assistants at the European Parliament. Marine Turchi reports.
France’s far-right Front National party is attempting to find funding from abroad for the 2017 presidential election campaign of its leader Marine Le Pen, who has been unable to convince French banks to provide the sizeable loans the party needs. Among potential foreign backers the party has already had contacts with is the United Arab Emirates which, according to one of Le Pen’s close entourage, financed an official visit she made to Egypt in 2015. Marine Turchi reports.
The head of the extreme-right French group the Groupe Union Défense or GUD in Paris, Logan Djian, has been placed under formal investigation for “aggravated violence” over the assault of a former head of the same group. Mediapart has obtained copies of nine video clips which show the full savagery of the attack. Mediapart can also reveal that investigators are examining where the 25,000 euros for Dijian's bail came from, amid suspicions that it came from a company set up by a senior figure in Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National. Marine Turchi and Thierry Vincent report.
French intelligence agencies knew as far back as 2009 that Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the three suicide bombers who attacked the Batalcan concert hall in Paris, had been radicalised in a group in France led by a veteran jihadist with a history of planning terrorist attacks, Mediapart can reveal. Mostefaï had also been spotted with the group when it was under surveillance in April 2014, and the authorities were later informed that he had almost certainly gone to Syria, at the same time as another future Bataclan bomber. But by late 2014 the secret services no longer knew of his whereabouts. He did not resurface again until November 13th, 2015, when he was part of the coordinated attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. The French authorities, however, deny there was any intelligence blunder. Yann Philippin, Marine Turchi and Fabrice Arfi report.
Revelations about the dramatic escape by two French pilots from the Dominican Republic made headlines in France this week. The two men, convicted of cocaine trafficking, fled the Caribbean country thanks to a well-organised plan while they were on house arrest pending an appeal. But the affair took on a political flavour, too, as anger rose in the Dominican Republic about the pilots' escape and amid claims that some French government agencies were involved. In particular a Euro MP and close ally of Marine Le Pen has belatedly admitted that he was directly involved in the extraction operation. Michel Deléan, Louise Fessard and Marine Turchi report.
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Après l’enquête de Mediapart sur les faits dénoncés par l’actrice Adèle Haenel, l’hebdomadaire « Marianne » publie une interview du réalisateur Christophe Ruggia déguisée en « contre-enquête ». Sauf qu’aucun contradictoire n’a été réalisé.
Par les faits qu’elle dénonce et par la rareté du témoignage principal dans un milieu (le cinéma) où l’omerta règne encore, l’enquête que nous publions est singulière. L’actrice Adèle Haenel sera l’invitée de notre émission lundi 4 novembre, à 19 heures, en direct sur notre site.
Mediapart avait demandé à la Commission nationale des comptes de campagne (CNCCFP) la communication des contrats des prêts russes du Front national et du microparti de Jean-Marie Le Pen. La commission avait refusé. Nous avions saisi la justice, qui nous a donné raison.
Invité d'une émission de France Culture consacrée au Front national – son fonctionnement, ses affaires –, Mediapart a été décommandé après que Jean-Lin Lacapelle, le secrétaire général adjoint du parti, a fait savoir qu'il ne viendrait pas si nous étions en plateau.
La campagne du Front national expliquée et analysée par des chercheurs qui travaillent sur ce parti depuis des années. Son programme, ses discours, sa stratégie, ses électorats, l’organisation de son appareil, son maillage territorial: c’est l'opération «FN, l'œil des chercheurs» que Mediapart lance pour les campagnes présidentielle et législatives.