Clandestine dinners: the alleged organizer pleads "humor" by denying the participation of ministers

The lawyer of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, owner of the "Palais Vivienne" implicated by a report from M6 for the organization of clandestine dinners in Paris, assured AFP on Sunday evening that his client was only doing "" humor "when he assured that ministers participated in such meals.

"Pierre-Jean Chalençon, a great collector of Napoleon's objects, always enjoyed making humor (...). This is how when he specifies that he dines with ministers in illegal restaurants, he handles brilliantly the meaning of the absurd ... ", declared his lawyer Me Jean-Luc Chetboun, in a press release to AFP.

An open investigation

Paris prosecutor Rémy Heitz opened a criminal investigation on Sunday after a report by M6 on these high-end dinners - banned during a pandemic - during which an anonymous source assured the channel that ministers participated in this kind of meal.

By the two sentences of the press release from his lawyer to AFP, Pierre-Jean Chalençon - already identified by the media and Internet users as this source - finally recognizes being this person who spoke in disguised voice over to M6.

The private channel had in particular broadcast Friday evening a report in hidden camera in a place presented as "an underground restaurant located in the beautiful districts", where the participants and the waiters do not wear masks and do not respect the barrier gestures, in spite of the epidemic linked to Covid-19.

In an interview broadcast at the beginning of February on Youtube, 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 having dinner".

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 "Ministers" in illegal restaurants?

What the government says

"We can afford to receive 6-8-10 people in different rooms"

The Palais Vivienne, which he owns, offers "560m² of reception rooms", according to him.

"We can afford to receive 6-8-10 people in different rooms," he added.

Several members of the government excluded Sunday that one of them could participate in such a dinner.

"I do not believe for a single second," said Gabriel Attal, government spokesman, on LCI.

In the interview broadcast at the end of February, Chalençon mentioned his "friends in the government", and in particular Mr. Attal by assuring: he "must come to dinner soon".

"Gabriel Attal discovered this excerpt this evening on Twitter with a lot of astonishment. He does not know Pierre-Jean Chalençon and has obviously never participated in any dinner or evening. As he indicated at the end of the post. - midday on LCI, he attaches the greatest importance to the exemplary nature of the members of the government in this period, "said the entourage of the spokesperson to AFP.