The thunderous lawyer was sentenced to 9 months of suspension of the right to practice for violation of the secrecy of the investigation. He appealed this conviction, which allows him to continue practicing.
Juan Branco, author of the media Crépuscule, was sentenced for violation of the secrecy of the investigation to a three-year suspension of activity, including 27 months suspended, according to Le Figaro, confirming the information from the online media The Letter. For its part, the Paris Bar only confirms that the person concerned has appealed. This appeal is suspensive, the lawyer can therefore, immediately, continue to practice.
In November 2021, Juan Branco was indicted for rape following a complaint filed by a 20-year-old young woman in Paris. She accused him of rape in April of the same year, following exchanges on Instagram. Placed in police custody a month later, the lawyer mentioned a consensual relationship.
An investigation was opened by the Paris public prosecutor’s office, entrusted to the first district of the Parisian judicial police (1st DPJ). In a long message posted on Facebook, the lawyer and essayist denied any forced relationship with the young woman. After a walk in Paris, the couple went to the lawyer’s home, according to the lawyer’s version, then watched a film before having consensual sexual relations. The next morning, the young woman would have “kissed” him before leaving, the lawyer further assured. She returned in the evening “cold and disturbed” announcing to him that she had put down a “handrail” on the advice of two friends.
To defend himself, the criminal lawyer did not stop there. He published a series of 21 tweets in the summer of 2023 on Twitter, in which he attacked the complainant, all by broadcasting extracts from the investigation file directly on Twitter. As explained by Marianne who revealed the proceedings, the lawyer did not hesitate to publish extracts from the complainant’s medical examination report, but also extracts from witness interviews or messages between him and the young woman. female. However, the code of criminal procedure formally prohibits any legal professional from “disseminating to a third party” any document resulting from an investigation.
A new audience in fall 2025
The Paris Bar Association has therefore launched proceedings against him, at the end of which he risks being disbarred. After his appeal, his new appearance before the disciplinary council of the Paris Bar Association should not take place before the fall of 2025.
Juan Branco is particularly known for a best-selling book, the anti-Macron pamphlet Crépuscule, published online at the end of 2018 then by Au Diable Vauvert/Massot in 2019. He became the lawyer of the Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski in the affair of the broadcast in 2020 of the sexual video of the former government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux, then candidate for mayor of Paris. Juan Branco was placed at the end of January under the status of assisted witness in this investigation. He is also the subject of disciplinary proceedings by the Council of the Order in the Griveaux case.
