The lawyer for Pierre-Jean Chalençon, owner of the “Palais Vivienne” accused by an M6 report of organizing clandestine dinners in Paris, assured AFP on Sunday evening that his client was only being “joking” when he said that ministers participated in such meals.
The lawyer for Pierre-Jean Chalençon, owner of the “Palais Vivienne” accused by an M6 report of organizing clandestine dinners in Paris, assured AFP on Sunday evening that his client was only being “joky” when he said that ministers participated in such meals. “Pierre-Jean Chalençon, a great collector of Napoleon’s objects, has always enjoyed making jokes (…). Thus, when he specifies that he dines with ministers in clandestine restaurants, he brilliantly handles the sense of the absurd…”, declared his lawyer Jean-Luc Chetboun, in a statement to AFP.
An investigation opened
Paris prosecutor Rémy Heitz opened a criminal investigation on Sunday after an M6 report on these high-end dinners—banned during the pandemic—during which an anonymous source assured the channel that ministers attended such meals. In two sentences from his lawyer’s statement to AFP, Pierre-Jean Chalençon—already identified by media outlets and internet users as this source—finally acknowledged being the person who spoke in disguised voiceover to M6.
The private channel notably broadcast a hidden camera report on Friday evening in a location presented as “a clandestine restaurant located in a wealthy neighborhood,” where participants and servers did not wear masks and did not respect social distancing measures, despite the Covid-19 epidemic. In an interview broadcast on YouTube at the beginning of February, 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 dinner”.
“We can afford to host 6, 8, or 10 people in different rooms.”
The Palais Vivienne, which he owns, offers “560 square meters of reception rooms,” he said. “We can afford to host 6, 8, or 10 people in different rooms,” he added. Several members of the government ruled out on Sunday that any of them could have participated in such a dinner. “I don’t believe it for a single second,” said Gabriel Attal, government spokesperson, on LCI. In the interview broadcast at the end of February, Chalençon referred to his “friends in the government,” including Mr. Attal, assuring that he “is due to come for dinner soon.”
“Gabriel Attal discovered this excerpt this evening on Twitter with great astonishment. He does not know Pierre-Jean Chalençon and has obviously never attended any dinner or evening. As he indicated late this afternoon on LCI, he attaches the greatest importance to the exemplary behavior of members of the government during this period,” the spokesperson’s entourage told AFP.