Juan Branco

Juan Branco
Branco in 2019
Born	1989 (age 34–35) Estepona, Andalusia, Spain
Nationality	French, Spanish
Education	École normale supérieure (Paris) (doctorate) Paris-Sorbonne University Panthéon-Sorbonne University Sciences Po Paris École alsacienne
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, writer, journalist
Employer(s)	International Criminal Court (2010-2011) French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013) Yale Law School (2013-2014) Max Planck Institute (2015-2016) La Sapienza University (2015-2016) Wikileaks (2015-2019) Independant lawyer (since 2017)
Notable work	Crépuscule
Political party	The Greens (2008-2009) Socialist Party (2012) Partido X (2014) La France Insoumise (2017-2018)
Movement	Indignados Movement (2013-2014) Yellow Vest Movement (since 2018)
Parent	Paulo Branco (father)

Juan Branco (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxwan ˈbɾaŋko], French: [bʁɑ̃ko], Portuguese: [ˈbɾɐ̃ko]), full name Juan Paulo Branco Lopez, born on August 26 in Estepona, is a French-Spanish lawyer, writer, journalist and political activist.

The son of Portuguese film producer Paulo Branco, he grew up in a wealthy environment. As a student, he stood out by opposing the Hadopi law, and became involved in politics, first with The Greens, and then within the Socialist Party's cultural centre during François Hollande's 2012 French presidential campaign. He was fired the day after the election, when the party reversed its position on Hadopi.

A doctor of law since 2014, he became WikiLeaks' and Julian Assange's legal advisor in France, after working as a researcher at Yale Law School, the Max Planck Institute and La Sapienza University. In 2017, he became a lawyer and defended Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In the same year, he ran unsuccessfully in the French legislative elections in Seine-Saint-Denis with the support of La France insoumise. He then distanced himself from the party.

He participated in the yellow vests movement in 2018 and defended figures from the movement pro-bono, including Maxime Nicolle and Christophe Dettinger. During the protests, he also published Crépuscule, a bestseller criticising Emmanuel Macron's rise to power and his links with French billionaires who concentrate press ownership. Since then, he has continued to defend in court several former demonstrators prosecuted for either caricaturing, insulting, or smacking Emmanuel Macron.

In June 2019, he filed at the International Criminal Court, jointly with Omer Shatz, a 250-page communication on European migration policy, accusing European Union leaders of crimes against humanity over the deaths of thousands of migrants. He also made several revelations during the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing a Pfizer contract and documents from the French hospital AP-HP.

He has been involved in cases concerning football's Financial Fair Play Regulations, since 2021, denouncing the "creeping financialisation" of football. In particular, he represented FC Barcelona supporters challenging the legality of Lionel Messi's transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, and in 2022 he became La Liga's lawyer after the organisation lodged a complaint before UEFA against PSG and Manchester City. He also defended Tayeb Benabderrahmane against Nasser al-Khelaïfi in the PSG spying affair.

In 2022, he defended victims of the 2016 Nice terrorist attack, calling for the politicians responsible for security measures on that day to be prosecuted. In 2023, he completed the trilogy begun with Crépuscule by publishing Coup d'état, and became the lawyer of the Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

Origins and private 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 lived a "golden childhood" in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood of Paris, being acquainted with celebrities like Catherine Deneuve and Raoul Ruiz.

In 2018 and 2019, he received welfare assistance (Revenu de solidarité active) after having defended yellow vest protestors pro-bono.

Education

Ecole alsacienne

After an education spent in public schools, Branco studied at the École alsacienne, a private establishment in the 6th arrondissement. In his own words, "one can reproduce and socialize there without fear of being contaminated by bad company". He also claimed to have "great contempt for the conformism of all these heirs". He used social networks to comment on the physique of his comrades; his comrade Gabriel Attal complained of his actions to the management of the establishment.

Masters at Sciences Po, Paris 1, ENS, and Paris IV

In 2007, he joined Sciences Po Paris (IEP) where he relaunched the film club and was noticed by the director of the establishment, Richard Descoings, who entrusted him with the mission of taking photos to feed his Facebook account. Years after he was asked by his widow to deliver a eulogy on behalf of the school's students at his funeral, he said, "All the flattery was instrumental, aimed at absorbing me to make me serve the system".

During his studies at the IEP, he obtained a DEUG in philosophy and law co-accredited by the University of Paris 1 in 2009, following which he was admitted to the literature and languages department of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS Ulm) the same year, and finished his bachelor's degree from the IEP the following year.

He obtained an M1 in modern literature in 2011, followed by an M2 in political philosophy and a Masters in public affairs in 2012, accredited by the University of Paris IV and the IEP of Paris respectively. The following year, he obtained an M2 in geopolitics co-accredited by the ENS Ulm and the University of Paris 1, and became an audit student of the ENS.

In 2019, L'Express reported that he mentioned on his curriculum vitae "in charge of a seminar at the École Normale Supérieure", which he was not. Branco replied to the weekly, "It changes absolutely nothing in the facts, whether it is organized by a student or not."

Doctor of law

Under the guidance of legal historian Jean-Louis Halpérin, he began a doctorate in international law and legal philosophy. His thesis, defended at the ENS Ulm eight months later, gave him the title of doctor of law. His work on the International Criminal Court was rewarded in 2015 with one of the thesis prizes from the Varenne University Institute — which became the Louis-Joinet Prize — in the “international criminal justice” category.

This doctorate obtained in eight months allowed him to join a regional training center for the profession of lawyer (CRFPA).

Early professional career

Researcher at Yale, Max Planck and La Sapienza (2013-2016)

After having worked with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for a year, and as an external collaborator at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for another year, ha was employed in the French department of Yale University between 2013 and 2014, and became a visiting scholar at Yale Law School, where he collaborated with the Yale Journal of International Law. In 2015, he was recruited as a visiting scholar at La Sapienza University of Rome, and as a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law. He earned eight thousand euros in salary there and specified on this subject: “I did not know what to do with it. It was a bit unsettling”.

Legal advisor of Wikileaks and Julian Assange (2015-2019)

Branco was passionate about the causes of other activists, such as the American whistleblower Edward Snowden. For a while, he tried to join the team defending the man who revealed the massive surveillance of global communications by the US secret services.

However, he met Julian Assange in 2015, probably through "a close friend" of Assange's, and after collaborating with the organisation as a volunteer for a few months, he joined the defence team of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange under the direction of Baltasar Garzón. As a legal adviser, he then represented the organization publicly, notably during the National Security Agency espionage revelations in 2015, relating to the presidents of the French Republic as well as to its large companies. He participated in diplomatic negotiations to obtain the right of asylum for Assange, which the Élysée ultimately refused.

Described by Le Supplément as "the man in the shadows" of Assange, responsible in particular for procedures with the United Nations and relations with certain States, he described on numerous occasions the risks inherent in working with WikiLeaks, particularly in contact with intelligence agencies, and defined the organization as a "World Library of Power Devices".

Until Assange was arrested in April 2019 and placed in solitary confinement in London's Belmarsh prison, Branco regularly visited him at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had taken refuge in 2012. He also helped set up a Facebook group, Assange, l'Ultime Combat (Assange, the Ultimate Fight), which organised bus trips between Paris and London in support of the Australian, and took part in two of them.

In 2019, the French independent newspaper Mediapart revealed that Branco had indeed been spied on by the CIA during his visits to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Lawyer career

First clients

Branco passed the bar in April 2017 and became a lawyer. He notably defended Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the so-called "OAS" affair, a far-right terrorist group planning attacks on politicians and mosques; as well as his father against Terry Gilliam and the Cannes Festival in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote case, where he prevailed.

MINUSCA legal expert

In May 2018, he was recruited by the United Nations in the Central African Republic as an independent expert, and was responsible with two others for developing the prosecution strategy of the Central African Special Criminal Court against human rights violations in the country.

On 25 May, 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. Less than a week later, he was expelled from the country by the MINUSCA, which said his tweets "may adversely affect the interests of the United Nations” and were therefore in breach of his contract. According to some sources, the decision was taken at UN headquarters. 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,”.

Yellow vest protestors

During the Yellow Vests movement, he became the pro-bono lawyer for protest figures, such as Maxime Nicolle, Christophe Dettinger, Stéphane Espic and Carole Pigaiani. After the protests, he continued to defend former protesters in court against Emmanuel Macron, such as Valérie Minet and Damien Tarel.

Maxime Nicolle

In particular, he intervened when Maxime Nicolle was arrested on the Champs-Elysées on 14 July 2019 during the Bastille Day and regularly gave him legal advice. He denounced an "arbitrary detention" and initiated legal proceedings to find out who had given the order. In September 2022, an investigation was opened against former police chief Didier Lallement.

Christophe Dettinger

He also defended the French professional boxer Christophe Dettinger, who was convicted of punching back two mobile gendarmes after clashes in Paris as part of the Yellow Vest protests. On 13 February 2019, Dettinger was sentenced to one year in prison and 18 months' probation. Branco tried to recover the money, €145 000, from a fundraising campaign set up to support the boxer, which was closed by the hosting website after less than 20 hours due to the outrage expressed by the authorities. In 2021, the fund was cancelled by the court, and he appelead.

Stephane Espic

In 2020, he defended Stéphane Espic against Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron. On 8 August, while the presidential couple were on holiday at the Fort de Brégançon, yellow vests gathered on the nearby beach, launched several inflatable lobsters and climbed on them to demonstrate in front of the fort's beach - a reference to the controversy surrounding former minister François de Rugy, who resigned after photos of him eating lobster on public funds were published. Convinced that she had been insulted, the first lady filed a complaint. Branco had the case dismissed on 30 September on a technicality.

Carole Pigaiani

In 2021, he defended two yellow vest protesters accused of "contempt of a public authority" for a caricature of French President Emmanuel Macron, police prefect Didier Lallement and US President Joe Biden. Branco argued that the caricature was "part of the free exercise of satire and freedom of expression". The two yellow vests were acquitted by the Paris Correctional Court on 26 May 2022.

Damien Tarel

He also represented on appeal Damien Tarel, condemned for smacking Emmanuel Macron, defending "a purgatory gesture which relieved many French people". On 2 November 2022, Damien Tarel was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, four of which were suspended. He was also permanently banned from public employment, and deprived of his civil and family rights (including the right to vote) for a period of three years.

Valérie Minet

In 2023, he defended Valérie Minet, who is being prosecuted for calling Emmanuel Macron a "scumbag" on Facebook. She was arrested and held in police custody for nine hours, and was then referred to the Magistrates' Court on a charge of insulting a public official. She faces a fine of 12,000 euros. Branco described the prosecution as an attempt at "intimidation". According to another lawyer contacted by France 3, these proceedings - and in particular the nine hours in police custody - were indeed unjustified.

Report accusing EU of crimes against humanity

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”.

Marvel Fitness and Mila affair

In 2020, he became the lawyer for the appeal of Marvel Fitness, a Youtuber who was accused of harassing several fitness Youtubers, after he had been convicted in the first instance and remanded in custody, as well as one of the defendants in the Mila affair. Marvel Fitness was released and sentenced on appeal to eighteen months in prison, two of which were suspended. Branco described the trial as "a playground conflict that should not have been litigated".

France convoy protest

In February 2021, he filed a petition for the protection of fundamental liberties (reféré-liberte) at the Paris Administrative Court to oppose the ban on the France convoy protest.

Football financial fair-play affairs

FC Barcelona

In 2021, he represented a socio and French supporters of FC Barcelona who challenged the legality of Lionel Messi's transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in the European Union courts. The plaintiffs argued that PSG, which is owned by a Qatari fund, was only able to make the purchase because of the postponement in France (until May 2023) of the application of UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules, which they claimed amounted to state aid.

Branco denounced the "creeping financialisation" of football and the fact that control of the sport's governance was being "handed over to UEFA", a private body based in Switzerland, rather than to the fans and European citizens. This complaint was officially rejected in February 2023.

La Liga

In June 2022, he became La Liga's lawyer in France, after the organisation filed a complaint at UEFA against PSG and Manchester City for non-compliance with financial fair play rules. He requested that Kylian Mbappé's contract be terminated.

Tayeb Benabderrahmane

In September 2022, he became one of the lawyers for Tayeb Benabderrahmane in the PSG spying affair, after he accused the Qatari authorities and PSG president Nasser al-Khelaïfi of "torture" and "extortion" for illegally detaining him, forcing him to return confidential information on the attribution of the 2022 World Cup and sign a confidentiality clause. Branco claimed that his client was a victim at the centre of a "state scandal".

2016 Nice terrorist attack

In September 2022, he defended victims of the terrorist attack in Nice in 2016. He did not call for the terrorists to be condemned, but for the politicians responsible for security measures on that day to be prosecuted and investigated, in particular the Prefet of the department and mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi. He also demanded that the videotapes be made public. However, Christian Estrosi denied responsibility, thus disappointing the victims.

Ousmane Sonko

In 2023, he defended senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was accused of defamation by the Senegalese Tourism Minister, after a statement about his management of public funds. On 30 March, he was refused entry into the country by the police at Dakar airport.

Political activity

The Greens and Jeune République (2008-2009)

Logo of Jeune République, a think tank founded by Juan Branco.

During his studies at Sciences Po, he became involved in school reform projects with the director Richard Descoings. Reputed close to Dominique de Villepin, he joined the Young Greens, leading the Île-de-France section and mobilising in particular against European migration policy and the Return directive.

France Info states : “After appearing on a Green list in the 2008 Paris municipal elections, he created the Jeune République think tank at the end of his second year, identified as close to Dominique de Villepin. "On the ideas, there was always a certain coherence, however, I was searching the way to defend them", he explains. "

Fight against Hadopi law (2009-2012)

In 2009, together with La Quadrature du Net, he fought against the Hadopi law, a French bill enforcing copyright protection on the Internet, by creating the platform Création, Public, Internet and by writing an open letter against the project in April 2009, which was signed by personalities from the film industry, including his father, Catherine Deneuve, Chantal Akerman and Christophe Honoré. The signatories denounced the "liberticidal" nature of the Hadopi Law and called on politicians to think about "new methods of remuneration" and to "meet the expectations of the public". He became acquainted with Julian Assange during the fight against Hadopi.

His book Réponses à Hadopi, published in 2011, proposed the development of a new legal and financial system for the film industry.

Socialist Party (2012)

During the 2012 presidential election campaign, he became involved in the Socialist Party and worked several months in the cultural centre of François Hollande's campaign. As a member of the "Culture, Audiovisual and Media" pole - led by future French Minister of Culture and Communication Aurélie Filippetti - , and presented by Les Inrocks as her chief of staff, Branco defended a reform of the French cultural exception, including the repeal of the Hadopi law and the decriminalisation of non-commercial peer-to-peer cultural exchanges.

However, he was dismissed the day after the presidential election, in favor of personalities from the cultural industries who were more favorable to Hadopi like Pierre Lescure or David Kaessler. Le Monde stated, "Hadopi makes first victim on the left". According to Juan Branco, this was a result of a lobbying campaign from some of the cultural industries against his reform. Mediapart's investigation confirmed an "accumulation of interests", in particular, Pierre Lescure's name had been suggested to François Hollande by France's Guild of Authors, Directors and Producers. Aurélie Filippetti, on the other hand, claimed that it was her refusal to accept Branco's request to become her chief of staff that led to his departure.

Indignados movement and Partido X (2013-2014)

He was then involved in the Spanish Indignados movement. During this period, he was edited by Alain Badiou, Michel Surya and Barbara Cassin, and intervened alongside Noam Chomsky, Jean-Luc Godard and Baltasar Garzón on issues of copyright, mass violence and surveillance in the digital era.

He later joined the campaign team of Partido X, arising from the Indignados movement, during the 2014 European elections in Spain.

Opposition to Emmanuel Macron (since 2013)

A fierce critic of Emmanuel Macron long before his election, he invited the journalist Marc Endeweld to investigate him in 2013, claiming that the conditions of his accession to power would determine the exercise of his power. From 2016, he described the possible election of the En Marche candidate as a precursor to the election of Marine Le Pen, and defended the blank ballot between the two rounds of the 2017 French presidential election.

La France Insoumise (2017-2018)

Branco then ran in the 2017 French legislative elections in Seine-Saint-Denis's 12th constituency under the label of La France insoumise, whose leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon was convinced by his support for Julian Assange. Branco came fourth and was eliminated in the first round, with 13.9% of the votes cast and 5.5% of those registered. Ahead of him were Jordan Bardella (FN, 15.1%), Ludovic Toro (UDI, 19.7%) and Stéphane Testé (LREM, 33.8%), who was elected in the second round.

Yellow Vests movement (since 2018)

He supported the yellow vests movement from the start and called for the dismissal of Emmanuel Macron.

He became the pro-bono lawyer for protest figures, such as Maxime Nicolle, Christophe Dettinger and Stéphane Espic, and also a friend of Maxime Nicolle, for whose autobiography Fly Rider, gilet jaune he wrote the preface, and of whom he said, "He is more intelligent than I am : I have learnt a lot from him, whether it is about French society, what he thinks of the current institutions, his experience of life in the army...".

He demonstrated several times alongside the yellow vests. He was present on 5 January 2019 when a forklift truck forced its way into the office of the government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux. In February 2019, in an interview with L'Express, he said of Macron's movement : "They are not corrupt, they are corruption".

Back in July 2017, in an interview with Aude Lancelin and in a first passage for Thinkerview, he had indeed anticipated a major political rupture as well as an increase in political violence in the country, due to an "authoritarian temptation" arising from the conditions of Emmanuel Macron's accession to power.

During the 2019 European elections, Branco called for abstention, which earned him the disapproval of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Writing activity

Réponses à Hadopi

In 2011, Branco published Réponses à Hadopi, a political fiction that imagines the development of a new legal and financial system for the film industry, and examines the concrete impact of the "global licence" on the cinema economy.

He imagined that in the following election, almost all the political parties had included the "global licence" in their presidential election manifestos: that is, freedom of downloading, accompanied by a mechanism to compensate artists and their beneficiaries, instead of penalising Internet users who pirate works.

Branco then imagined that the average broadband Internet and telephone subscription would be raised from 30 euros to 35 euros. In return, ISP customers would have unlimited access to cultural content. The difference of 5 euros would be a nice sum, at least 1.2 billion euros, thanks to the 20 million households that would be connected in 2011. This money would go to artists' rights holders on a basis proportional to the number of downloads, plus a redistribution to promote cultural diversity. 400 million of this total of 1.2 billion euros would go to the cinema, according to the economic model proposed by Philippe Aigrain, founder of La Quadrature du Net.

He concluded: "The global licence is in fact the last hope of a cultural exception that is becoming increasingly fragile". This plea is followed by an interview with Jean-Luc Godard, for whom "the author's only right is his duty to create".

Crépuscule

Main article: Crépuscule (book)

In December 2018, he published Crépuscule on his blog hosted by Le Monde, a long document which criticized the rise of Emmanuel Macron and his links to the wealthy shareholders of the French press, a vitriolic attack on a section of the Parisian elite and a call for popular revolt. He described Macron's movement as "a new form of fascism". He already reported a major democratic aporia in Contre Macron, a first philosophical text published online in July 2017 and published by Divergences in January 2019.

Shortly after the publication of his text, he was reported to the public prosecutor's office by the French deputy Aurore Bergé for "arming people's minds to legitimise violence in the country". He denied any fault and claimed responsibility for his writings, and was defended by WikiLeaks, by Denis Robert, who introduced the written version of his text, or even by Pamela Anderson.

After being downloaded around 100,000 times, Crépuscule was published by Au diable vauvert in March 2019 and sold 250,000 copies. Abroad, it has been covered by the media, particularly in Spain, Belgium and Switzerland, but not in France, despite having been on several literary bestseller lists. Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique wondered : "Who is Juan Branco, the Wikileaks legal adviser who has alienated the French press?" It wasn't until the end of April 2019 that some French media reviewed the book, mostly negatively.

It is the first volume of a trilogy, followed by Abattre l'ennemi in 2021 and Coup d'état in 2023.

Assange, L'anti-souverain

In January 2020, he published Assange, L'anti-souverain, a 489-page biography of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. In this book, he traces the career of the Australian hacker and the news website he created, opens up the debate about this anti-sovereignist figure, and also addresses the growing public distrust of the traditional media. Branco argues that Assange is a "revolutionary" in that he has invented a new "desintermediated" relationship with information based on an immediately accessible source document.

Branco then contrasts the figures of the two whistleblowers, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. He looks at the "Assange event" and compares it to the "Snowden advent". While acknowledging the courage of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, former CIA agent and NSA contractor behind the biggest leak in the history of US intelligence, Juan Branco insists on one point: Edward Snowden is not really subverting the system. As a former servant and a good "patriot", libertarian, pro-war in Iraq, he is suffering from a "crisis of conscience". Julian Assange, on the other hand, embodies a complete "anti-sovereignty" that really subverts the system.

The Republic does not belong to you

On 9 December 2019, Branco was invited to give a speech in the honour amphitheatre of the French Ecole Polytechnique. He told the students of France's most prestigious engineering school, "The Republic does not belong to you". The speech was organised by Les Tribunes de l'X, a Polytechnique student society. It was then transcribed into an essay entitled La République ne vous appartient pas (The Republic does not belong to you) which was published on 7 May 2020.

Abattre l'ennemi

In March 2021, he published Abattre l'ennemi (Defeat the enemy), a political manifesto proposing solutions and a detailed governance project. It calls for a major paradigm shift by proposing a revolutionary programme, including the creation of special courts, but also a change of the country's leaders. It is the second volume of a trilogy begun with Crépuscule.

Coup d'état

In March 2023, he concluded the trilogy he began with Crépuscule and Abattre l'ennemi by publishing Coup d'état, a manual for insurgents that aims to provide the tools to lead a revolution, and calls for the seizure of power by force. It examines the scenarios of election, revolution and coup, with the possibilities of success or failure, the advantages and disadvantages of each option. The first two parts are devoted to analysing the nature, constraints and conditions of the exercise of power.

Hanouna

In May 2023, he announced the publication of his forthcoming book Hanouna, which promises to tackle the French show business and in particular TPMP host Cyril Hanouna: "What is Hanouna ? Nothing. Nada. Keutchi. [...] A pawn in a system that would be useless to overthrow on its own, [...]". Hanouna will be published on June 1, but the book is already a bestseller in online bookstores.

Journalistic activity

Between 2008 and 2019, Branco has written columns for Le Monde Diplomatique, L'Humanité, Libération,, Esprit, and Les Inrockuptibles.

In 2013, he was reporter during the Central African Republic Civil War for Les Inrockuptibles.

In 2016, he investigated Areva's operations in the Central African Republic, known as the "Uramin scandal", for Le Monde Diplomatique, and in 2019 he published an article entitled "The indomitable Julian Assange".

He then developed a critique of media concentration, notably in his book Crépuscule.

On 25 March 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 AP-HP 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".

Other activities

After he published Crépuscule in December 2018, denouncing the concentration of French media ownership in the hands of billionaires and their role in the election of Emmanuel Macron, he alienated the French press, which began to criticise him harshly ("complotist", "fascist"...) and investigate his background.

Conflict with L'Express

In an article published on 11 February 2019, L'Express claimed that Branco had not been "in charge of a seminar" at the École normale supérieure, described him as a "chic radical who wants the skin of Macron", criticised his closeness to the Yellow Vest Movement, recalled the controversy with Gabriel Attal and questioned the sincerity of his commitment. 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 [his] minority"; he also pointed out that L'Express is owned by the businessman and billionaire Patrick Drahi, who had been heavily criticised in Crépuscule.

Self-promotion on Wikipedia

In February 2019, L'Express claimed that, after a dispute with the wife of a former Sciences Po professor over the latter's Wikipedia page, he impersonated a Wikipedia administrator by signing an email to her employer saying she had unduly modified the page. The professor had alledgely given him a zero for absenteeism during the 2012 French presidential campaign.

On 21 February 2020, Le Figaro claimed that Branco had been editing his own Wikipedia pages for many years, in an attempt to embellish his biography. He alledgely made his edits under several identities, using so-called sockpuppets. According to the French newspaper, he had also edited other people's articles to portray them in a negative light.

Benjamin Griveaux affair

On 14 February 2020, it was reported that he was representing the Russian artist Petr Pavlensky, both before and after the latter leaked sexually explicit videos depicting Paris mayoral elections candidate Benjamin Griveaux on his website Pornopolitique. Multiple sources claimed that Branco was involved in the leak. This was denied by Branco.

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 an ironical psychological evaluation of Griveaux to know if he had a "cognitive dissociation, and possibly to distinguish it from the more classic Tartuffe syndrome seen in a number of high-level politicians", whose defense called the request "grotesque and hateful". The request was denied by the examining magistrate.

In October 2020, it was reported that disciplinary proceedings were 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.

Proposal to defend Salah Abdeslam

On 22 February 2020, Valeurs actuelles revealed that in an October 2016 letter to the Fleury-Mérogis prison, Branco had proposed to Salah Abdeslam, one of the terrorists responsible for the November 2015 Paris attacks, to "dismiss [his] legal advisors" and made suggestions for his defence strategy. Branco claimed to have written the letter because he wanted to "allow those who cannot defend themselves to defend themselves". However, Frank Berton, the terrorist's first French lawyer, denounced an "illegal exercise of the profession". In fact, when Branco contacted Salah Abdeslam, he was not yet a lawyer. 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 [he] had wanted to."

Ongoing justice investigation for rape

On 29 April 2021, a 20-year-old woman accused Branco of having abused her after they had taken a drug together. Branco claimed the relation had been consensual. He also showed journalists a conversation in which the young woman assured him that she would withdraw her accusation on the following monday, but she did not withdraw. Branco was placed under criminal investigation for rape in November 2021.

Disclosure of Pfizer contract terms

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.

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)