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Juan Branco
Juan Branco in 2019
Born	1989 (age 34–35) Estepona, Andalusia, Spain
Nationality	French, Spanish
Education	École normale supérieure (Paris) (doctorate) Sciences Po Paris École alsacienne
Occupation	Lawyer
Notable work	Crépuscule
Political party	The Greens (2008-2009) Socialist Party (2012) Partido X (2014) La France Insoumise (2017-2018)
Parents	Paulo Branco (father) Dolores López (mother)

Juan Branco (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxwan ˈbɾaŋko], French: [bʁɑ̃ko], Portuguese: [ˈbɾɐ̃ko]) is a French political activist, writer and lawyer.

He gained notoriety in 2019 with his book Crépuscule, critical of French President Emmanuel Macron, and in early 2020, with his involvement in the Griveaux affair. He has been a supporter of the Yellow vests movement.

In July 2023, his involvement as a lawyer of the Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko led him to be sued by the French government and to Senegal to issue an international arrest warrant against him.

Personal life

Born in Spain in 1989, in the municipality of Estepona, Andalusia, Juan Branco is the son of Portuguese film producer Paulo Branco and Spanish psychoanalyst Dolores López. He grew up in Andalusia and then in Paris, between the 5th and 6th arrondissements. He has two sisters and a brother. He was naturalized French in 2010.

He studied at the École alsacienne, an elite private high school in Paris. He is said to have had a "golden childhood" in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood of Paris, being acquainted to stars like Catherine Deneuve.

He studied as undergraduate at Sciences Po and as graduate and PhD student at the École normale supérieure, where he was admitted without passing the entrance exam.

In 2013, he assisted to a horse race in the desert at the invite of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi.

He wrote his thesis at the École normale supérieure in 8 months and this let him become a lawyer without having to pass the selective exam to enter in the school for lawyers.

In 2018, L'Express stated that Branco is making false statements on his CV and elsewhere. After Branco defended himself from this accusation, L'Express provided additional information to prove their claims. Branco claimed to have been a lecturer at the École normale supérieure, but the school told L'Express that it refers to an exercise for students that every student of the school do. He also claimed "never having created a Skyblog", but L'Express provided captures of the blog he co-administered during his high-school years. The blog invited the pupils to rate the girls in the school according to their physique and use the word "blondasse" ("blondie"). Exercising his right of reply, published by the newspaper on 29 April 2019, Branco criticised the article for presenting "a one-sided portrait of a 29-year-old man, based in particular on facts that occurred during minority"; he also pointed out that L'Express is owned by the businessman and billionaire Patrick Drahi, who had been heavily criticised in Crépuscule.

Political activity and activism

As a student, Branco actively supported former right-wing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a friend of his mother's.

Afterwards he supported The Greens (France) and then went on to participate in the campaign of future President François Hollande (Socialist Party). He worked several months during the campaign for future French Minister of Culture and Communications Aurélie Filippetti, who refused him a position of chief of staff after the election.

Branco claimed to have been chief of staff of Aurélie Filippetti, but Filippetti denied it. She later stated that he "demanded to be hired as her chief of staff at age 22", that he "completely lost it when he was refused the position" and told her that he recorded their conversations. She describes him as "dangerous, intelligent and skillful", as "megalomaniacal, a compulsive liar and very, very manipulative".

Branco then joined the left-wing populist party La France Insoumise. He stood in the 2017 French legislative election for Seine-Saint-Denis's 12th constituency where he placed fourth. His former running-mate stated that Branco "wanted to win a parliamentary seat and abandoned the party after the loss". After he was refused a sufficiently high spot on the electoral list of La France Insoumise in the 2019 European Parliament election in France his support for the party ended and he called for an abstention in the election.

He became a vocal supporter of the Yellow vests movement, some of whose members he also represented in court, including Maxime Nicolle, and a critic of President of France Emmanuel Macron thereafter.

In 2018 he outed the homosexuality of his former class-mate and government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Twitter.

Branco has previously claimed that he worked as a "special assistant" to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Asked for a clarification by the French journal GQ France, the Court responded that Branco ""claims to have been the assistant of the Prosecutor (..) while in reality he was an intern (...) and then worked at the OTP Public Information Unit".

In May 2018, he publicly accused on Twitter, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) forces of committing a massacre in Bangui, and said they could be investigated by the Criminal Court. He had been tasked as an independent expert for the United Nations with developing a strategy for investigations conducted by the Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic. He was fired by the UN less than a week after his mission started. Branco denied that his actions ran contrary to the interests of the United Nations, writing that “denouncing crimes is a requirement for anyone, and in particular for those in charge of fighting them,”.

Branco's book Crépuscule, in which he criticized the French president Emmanuel Macron, was published in 2019. It was commercially successful. It received mostly negative reviews in the French press.

In June 2019, he filed at the International Criminal Court, jointly with Omer Shatz, a 250-page communication on European migration policy, accusing the leaders of the European Union of crimes against humanity over the deaths of thousands of migrants who have perished in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to flee Libya between 2014 and 2019. The report also claimed that the EU "orchestrated the interception and detention of 40,000 people" seeking to flee the country between 2016 and 2019. The document was based on the analysis of five years of statements, decisions and European reports. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted by indicating that “this accusation has no legal basis”.

In May 2020, Branco revealed that a hospital in the Ile-de-France region had started to dramatically 'triaged' certain patients due to a lack of resources in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. He shared an internal document from the Parisian AP-HP hospital which referred to a 75-year-old patient with no medical history and possible coronavirus who was denied an intensive care bed due to a lack of space. The AP-HP confirmed the authenticity of the document and acknowledged "tensions over ICU beds".

In September 2021, Branco revealed the existence of clauses in Pfizer's vaccine contracts that protect the US pharmaceutical company from legal action in the event of serious side-effects. He posted a confidential contract between Brazil and Pfizer on Twitter, which also revealed that Brazil elicited much cheaper jabs from Pfizer than the European Union, at about $10. Branco said that since the production cost of a Pfizer vaccine is believed to be a maximum of $2 (£1.50), the legitimacy of the profits should be questioned. “This debate can’t happen if the public and the citizens are kept out of the loop,” he added. The contract was initially leaked in April on the Brazilian health ministry website, but was removed soon after and went largely unnoticed outside Brazil until the information was tweeted by Branco.

Legal advice and representations

He was in 2015 the legal advisor by WikiLeaks and met with Julian Assange, trying to help obtain asylum for Assange in France.

In 2016 he solicited Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the group directly involved in the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015 (in which 130 people were killed and 683 others were injured), proposing in a letter to help in his legal defense and claiming to be representing Julian Assange. As he was not admitted to the bar and therefore not legally permitted to practice law at the time, one of the French lawyers representing Abdeslam characterized Brancos actions as attempted fraud. Branco explained that in October 2016, he "had just got his lawyer certificate" and "could be sworn in and become a lawyer in a heartbeat if had wanted to."

Branco passed the bar in 2017, and, in 2019, have had 3 clients in two years, including his father, and was receiving welfare assistance (Revenu de solidarité active) during that time.

He has represented his father Paulo Branco and won his case against Terry Gilliam in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote case.

In 2021, he represented one of the defendants in the Mila affair cyberbullying case and Marvel fitness, a defendant in another cyberbullying case, where Branco described the trial as "a playground conflict that should not have been litigated".

Cases involving Branco in personal capacity

In April 2021, a 20-year-old woman declared to the police she had felt threatened and coerced on night in a context of an intimate relation under the influence of a drug they had taken together, while Branco claimed the relation was consensual. A police inquiry was made, and his lawyer stated that the woman said herself that she did not oppose to any step, took off her clothes herself and slept over at his place and that the inquiry was abusive. He has been put under official criminal investigation on the count of rape in November 2021.

In 2023, a former employee of Branco sued him for moral harassment and infringement of French labor law. She revealed that Branco has his law firm in his mother’s apartment in a chic neighborhood of Paris, overburdened her with work in comparison to her work contract that she had to write herself, had her to meet with clients even though she never studied law, was reluctant to pay her at all and used a series of humiliating techniques when she wanted to leave and afterwards when she wanted to obtain the documents she was legally entitled to receive from him. She stated: "He presents himself as the defender of the widow and the orphan, but behind the scenes he exploits his employees. He has no limits." Branco tried to have her sued for "blackmail", accusing her to threaten him to share confidential documents, but the public attorney dismissed the case. Liberation commented: "A method typical of the lawyer's stunts: attacking first on social networks, the better to claim the lead in the story and pose as the atoning victim of imagined enemies." According to the former employee, Branco was often paranoid, like when in the morning he would announce that foreign intelligence services broke into his apartment to access his computers during the night. The Commission on harassment and discrimination of the Paris Bar Council will additionally make a disciplinary decision on this matter. Branco stated that the two interns at the firm during the same period have stated in writing that their working conditions were normal, which Liberation verified to be true.

Griveaux affair

In February 2020 it was reported that he was representing the Russian activist Petr Pavlensky both before and after the latter leaked sexually explicit videos depicting Benjamin Griveaux, then candidate in the mayoral elections for Paris. Multiple sources claim that Juan Branco was himself involved in the leak, a criminal offense under French law. This was denied by Branco.

Pavlensky was arrested on 14 February 2020 for stabbing two people during a New Year's Eve party organized by Branco and his girlfriend in a Paris flat owned by the latters' parents.

After Branco was hired by Pavlensky as his defense attorney, the chairman of the French bar association opened an inquiry into the appropriateness of the defense in light of Branco's involvement in the affair. No conflict of interest was found but Branco was advised to step down as Pavlensky's defense attorney nonetheless due to a "lack of distance". Branco originally followed the advice but later reverted his decision and joined the defense of Pavlensky once more. Branco went on to request a psychological evaluation of Griveaux, the victim of the alleged crime, whose defense called the request "grotesque and hateful". The request was denied by the examining magistrate as it was deemed "not useful for the establishment of the truth".

In October 2020, it was reported that disciplinary proceedings are being pursued against Branco by the Paris Bar Association following his involvement in the affair.

In September 2021, he received a blame from the Paris Bar Association for having "amplified the viral distribution" of the intimate videos, but was largely cleared of the other charges.

In September 2022, the investigating magistrates cleared Branco of all charges.

In June 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal overturned the discipline imposed on Branco by the Paris Bar Association.

Sonko Affair

In July 2023, the French government referred Juan Branco to the public prosecutor for putting in life danger French civil servants in Senegal. In the wake of the turmoil in Senegal around the politician Ousmane Sonko, imprisoned in a context of political feud with the current president, Branco had accused two French civil servants of crime against humanity, mentioning them by name, before disclosing the personal details of one of them, such as his telephone number or personnel number. Juan Branco also named five other agents in his complaint.

In the same context, Senegal issued an international arrest warrant against Branco in July 2023. The committee of lawyers for Sonko issued a statement in which it "firmly expressed (its) strong indignation at any such abuse of our colleague Juan Branco", whose "only fault" would be "to have denounced, at the request of victims' relatives, serious crimes allegedly committed in Senegal, and to have seized the competent jurisdictions to judge and condemn all the people" on whom "presumptions weigh".

Self-promotion on Misplaced Pages

Juan Branco has been editing his own Misplaced Pages pages for many years, attempting to embellish his biography. He makes his edits under multiple identities, using what are known as sockpuppets. He has also edited articles of others to "settle accounts" by portraying them in a negative light.

He once wrote a threatening letter to the employer of another Misplaced Pages editor, pretending to be a "Misplaced Pages administrator" named "Addas Karadas" and threatening legal action.

Publications

• Réponses à Hadopi (Paris, Capricci, 2011, ISBN 978-2918040255)
• De l'affaire Katanga au contrat social global: Un regard sur la Cour pénale internationale (Paris, 2015, LGDJ-IUV, 2015, ISBN 978-2370320582)
• L'ordre et le monde (Paris, Fayard, 2016, ISBN 978-2213680880), edited by Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin
• D'après une image de Daesh (Paris, Lignes, 2017, ISBN 978-2-35526-164-0)
• Contre Macron (Edition Divergence, 2019, ISBN 979-1097088125)
• Crépuscule (Paris, Au Diable Vauvert, 2019, ISBN 979-1030702606)
• Assange, l'antisouverain (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 2020, ISBN 978-2204133074)
• La République ne vous appartient pas : Discours à polytechnique, (Paris, Au diable vauvert, 2020, 110 p., ISBN 979-10-307-0379-5)
• Abattre l'ennemi (Éditions Michel Lafon, 2021, ISBN 978-2-7499-4697-9)
• Treize pillards (Au diable vauvert, 2022, 112 p., ISBN 979-1030705072)
• Luttes (Michel Lafon, 2022, ISBN 978-2749949550)
• Coup d'état (Au diable vauvert, 2023, ISBN 979-10-307-0625-3)
• Hanouna (Au diable vauvert, 2023, ISBN 979-1030706246)

References

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2. Santucci, Françoise-Marie. "Le joueur des chèques". Libération (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-02.
3. Endeweld 2013
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5. ^ "Juan Branco, itinéraire d'un enfant gâté devenu activiste sans scrupule" (in French). 18 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
6. ^ Tabet (March 2020). "Dans les réseaux de Juan Branco". Le Parisien (in French) (23487): 20–23.
7. "Des grandes écoles aux "gilets jaunes" en passant par WikiLeaks : Qui est Juan Branco, l'avocat proche de Piotr Pavlenski ?". 7 May 2019.
8. "Juan Branco, un tiers maudit, deux tiers mondain". 10 June 2021.
9. ^ "Les réponses de l'Express à Juan Branco". 29 April 2019.
10. "Droit de réponse de Juan Branco". L'Express (in French). 2019-04-29. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
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15. "Juan Branco, l'avocat qui intrigue" (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-08.
16. "Des grandes écoles aux "gilets jaunes" en passant par WikiLeaks : qui est Juan Branco, l'avocat proche de Piotr Pavlenski ?". Franceinfo (in French). 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2020-06-30.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
17. "Juan Branco : « Nous serons probablement demain l'un et l'autre des ennemis principiels" (in French). 17 January 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
18. "Affaire Griveaux : Qui est Juan Branco, l'avocat qui dit "avoir accompagné" Piotr Pavlenski ?". GQ (in French) (French ed.). 25 September 2019. Archived from the original on 2021-10-21.
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20. ^ "U.N. fires Central Africa legal adviser who accused peacekeepers of massacre". Reuters. 2018-05-31. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
21. Kouassi, Carole (31 May 2018). "Centrafrique: la Minusca expulse un expert français qui l'accuse de crimes". fr.africanews.com (in French).
22. "Crépuscule: Juan Branco découvre la lune".
23. ""Peuplecratie" d'Ilvo Diamanti et Marc Lazar / "Crépuscule" de Juan Branco". 11 May 2019.
24. ""Crépuscule» de Juan Branco, ce qu'il faut garder et ce qu'il faut jeter"". 26 April 2019.
25. ""Crépuscule" de Juan Branco : Fausse enquête-révélations sur Macron et vrai gâchis". 6 June 2019.
26. "Critique des médias, attaques sur Macron... On a lu "Crépuscule", le livre "censuré" de Juan Branco". 25 April 2019.
27. "Qui a peur du "révolutionnaire" Juan Branco?". Le Temps. 17 April 2019.
28. "Décès de migrants en Méditerranée: des avocats veulent traduire l'UE en justice". LEFIGARO (in French). 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
29. Oltermann, Philip; Giuffrida, Angela (2022-11-30). "European politicians accused of conspiring with Libyan coastguard to push back refugees". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
30. "Juan Branco, der Anwalt für Assange, die Gelbwesten und Flüchtlinge". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2023-05-19.
31. "Deux avocats accusent l'UE de crimes contre l'humanité envers les migrants de Libye". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
32. "Migrants : deux avocats veulent que l'UE soit poursuivie pour crime contre l'humanité". L'Express (in French). 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
33. "Un patient sans antécédents privé d'un lit en réanimation en Ile-de-France?". www.20minutes.fr (in French). 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
34. Busby, Mattha; Milhorance, Flávia (2021-09-10). "Pfizer accused of holding Brazil 'to ransom' over vaccine contract demands". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
35. "Pfizer is holding Brazil 'to ransom' over vaccine contract: Reports". WION. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
36. ^ Busby, Mattha; Milhorance, Flávia (2021-09-10). "Pfizer accused of holding Brazil 'to ransom' over vaccine contract demands". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
37. 2015 NSA Espionnage revelations
38. ^ "Affaire Griveaux : Ce qu'il faut savoir sur Juan Branco". 17 February 2020.
39. "Quand Juan Branco écrivait à Salah Abdeslam". valeursactuelles.com. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2020..
40. "Juan Branco a écrit une lettre à Salah Abdeslam en 2016 pour le conseiller". rtl.fr. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020..
41. ""C'est un exercice illégal" : quand il sollicite le terroriste Abdeslam, Juan Branco... n'est pas encore avocat". marianne.net. 25 February 2020..
42. Cite error: The named reference :252 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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44. "Branco confirme avoir écrit à Abdeslam en 2016 pour lui proposer de le défendre". L'Express (in French). 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
45. "Paris appeals court rules in favour of Paulo Branco on 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'". Screen. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
46. "France: 11 convicted of cyberbullying teen who slammed Islam". Associated Press. 7 July 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
47. "Cyberharcelement, le youtubeur Marvel Fitness condamné en appel". Le Monde.fr. 28 September 2021.
48. "L'avocat Juan Branco visé par une enquête pour viol". Le Monde.fr. 30 April 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
49. Décugis, Jean-Michel (June 2021). "Visé par une enquête pour viol, l'avocat Juan Branco placé en garde à vue". Le Parisien. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
50. "Juan Branco mis en examen pour viol". lepoint.fr. 24 November 2021.
51. https://www.liberation.fr/societe/police-justice/au-cabinet-de-juan-branco-il-se-presente-en-defenseur-de-la-veuve-et-de-lorphelin-mais-derriere-il-exploite-ses-employes-20230712_QMON3PN7PFGGFO7P5CCETPEHKU/
52. "Vidéos intimes de Griveaux : le rôle trouble de Juan Branco". lepoint.fr (in French). 14 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
53. "France shrugs at sex scandals. But after a leaked video, this politician bowed out". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
54. "Piotr Pavlenski : Dans les coulisses de sa soirée du 31 décembre 2019 à Paris". 29 February 2020.
55. "Le bâtonnier de Paris a demandé à Branco de ne pas défendre Pavlenski". lepoint.fr (in French). 2020-02-19. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
56. "Branco redevient avocat de Pavlenski et demande une expertise psychiatrique de Griveaux". LExpress.fr (in French). 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
57. "Griveaux : La justice refuse l'expertise psychiatrique demandée par Branco". LePoint.fr (in French). 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
58. "L'Ordre des avocats lance des poursuites disciplinaires contre Juan Branco". nouvelobs.com (in French). 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
59. Leplongeon, Marc (2021-10-04). "INFO LE POINT. Affaire Griveaux : Juan Branco sanctionné d'un blâme". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-19.
60. "Affaire Griveaux : Juan Branco échappe à la justice… mais pas Piotr Pavlenski ni sa compagne". www.marianne.net (in French). 2022-09-06. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
61. "Justice. Affaire Griveaux: la cour d'appel de Paris annule un blâme infligé à l'avocat Juan Branco". www.leprogres.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-06-21.
62. https://www.europe1.fr/politique/info-europe-1-le-ministere-des-affaires-etrangeres-porte-plainte-contre-juan-branco-4193848
63. https://www.ouest-france.fr/monde/senegal/mandat-darret-international-signalements-ce-que-lon-sait-des-plaintes-visant-juan-branco-ef41ee6a-2317-11ee-9431-73dfb3ee49de
64. "Sur Wikipédia, les vies rêvées de Juan Branco". 21 February 2020.
65. "Juan Branco, l'avocat qui intrigue".
66. Library of the Congress
67. BNF reference
68. Editorial description of L'ordre et le monde
69. "Editorial description". 2020-02-25.

• Living people
• French people of Spanish descent
• 21st-century French lawyers
• 1989 births
• École Normale Supérieure alumni