France says Russian operation sought to link Macron to Epstein case

ISTANBUL

France detected a Russian interference operation sought to link President Emmanuel Macron to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's case, according to government sources cited by the BFMTV broadcaster.

The interference operation is said to be linked to a Russian network called “Storm-1516” through a piece of news flagged as fake by the Foreign Ministry’s French Response account on US social media company X.

An account named "Loetitia Halasz" claimed Macron was a "frequent guest" at Epstein's residence in Paris, relying in particular on an article attributed to the outlet France Soir, which later denounced the claim as "brand and content impersonation."

"It turns out that Loetitia claims to hold world secrets. It turns out that AI turns them into images. It turns out that the France Soir article does not exist. It turns out that Russian networks are amplifying it directly," French Response said, refuting Loetitia's claim.

BFMTV noted that while Macron’s name appears more than 200 times in the recently released Epstein files, it is only mentioned in discussions involving other individuals or in press articles, and that there is currently no evidence of any exchange or meeting between the French president and the sex offender.

The US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images related to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by US President Donald Trump in November.

The materials include photographs, grand jury transcripts, and investigative records, though many pages remain heavily redacted.

Epstein was found dead by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.