Fake "scoop" of cocaine trafficking in Reconquête: Emmanuelle Gave convicted of defamation

A police raid on Eric Zemmour's party, kilos of coke seized, a sprawling trafficking network involving even the Élysée Palace, an Interpol investigation, surveillance, informants, and, in the middle, Sarah Knafo, not yet an MEP at the time. The story would have made for great articles. But it was all bogus: the scenario had been invented by Emmanuelle Gave, daughter of millionaire Charles Gave , a far-right financier, who was angry with Reconquête. The ex-lawyer's delusions, at the time largely developed on her Twitter account with the help of a mythomaniac friend, lasted an entire weekend in September 2022, during Reconquête's summer university in the Var region.

Emmanuelle Gave then shared her "scoop" with her 50,000 followers, including Sarah Knafo's fictitious audition in front of the chickens, in which she allegedly implicated two of her acquaintances. Not without consequences: Gave has just been sentenced for defamation against Reconquête, after a hearing held on April 29, to pay the far-right movement €1,500 in damages. The party had been demanding €30,000.

Reconquête had taken the matter very seriously: at the time of the events, on September 10 and 11, 2022, he was holding his summer university in Vinon-sur-Verdon, in the Var . From Paris, behind her computer, Emmanuelle Gave, claimed that a police raid had taken place there, where 64 grams of cocaine had been seized, following an investigation involving 200 kilos of powder, resulting from a joint action by the Var gendarmeries and Interpol, which would have "blocked the network" of mobile telephones in the area to prevent leaks between the dealers.

Everything was well-crafted: Emmanuelle Gave had even tried at the time to sell her fake "scoop" to the press, including Libé , putting us in touch with an individual who pretended to be the "Interpol commander in charge of the operation." The telephone conversation between Libé and the mythomaniac had been ludicrous, drifting towards a conspiracy between Reconquête and Emmanuel Macron against a backdrop of drug trafficking: "We are working discreetly. There are about fifty of us in total. You will have absolutely no confirmation or details from my services because for the moment we have battened down the hatches..."

After checking with the public prosecutor's office, there was no raid, no investigation, no drugs, and the Interpol General Secretariat had reminded everyone that "Interpol never launches operations on the ground. It's always the national police." Emmanuelle Gave should have known that beforehand.