French investigative outlet Mediapart has escalated its confrontation with Rassemblement National leader Jordan Bardella, publishing a second tranche of screenshots purporting to show antisemitic messages written by him — material whose authenticity the publication says it has established through formal legal and technical means.
What the Investigation Claims
The new screenshots depict Facebook Messenger conversations from 2013 and 2014. Mediapart says their authenticity was verified through a data extraction supplied directly by Meta and certified by a court bailiff — a procedural step that lends the material a degree of evidentiary weight beyond mere assertion. Edwy Plenel, the outlet’s co-founder, set out the methodology publicly on Twitter.
The investigation, conducted over several months, draws on dozens of written exchanges and interviews with eighteen individuals. Two entirely separate sources, both described as coming from Bardella’s own circle, independently supplied the material to Mediapart, which has emphasised that the two sources have no connection to one another.
Bardella’s Response and the Legal Dimension
Bardella has denied authorship of the messages from the outset, dismissing them on X as “crude fakes” and characterising the affair as a coordinated operation to destabilise his presidential campaign. Following Mediapart’s initial publication, he filed a defamation complaint against the outlet — a legal avenue that will ultimately require the courts, rather than partisan assertion, to adjudicate the matter. Senior figures within the RN have rallied publicly behind him.
The denial has not, however, neutralised the political fallout. President Emmanuel Macron described the remarks attributed to Bardella on Wednesday as “extremely serious and unacceptable”, calling on the RN to provide clarification — a pointed intervention that signals the affair has moved well beyond the internal dynamics of the French far right.
Key Facts at a Glance
The essential elements of this developing story are worth setting out plainly, given the volume of competing claims now in circulation.
The defamation complaint ensures that the question of authenticity will eventually be tested in a French court, where the evidentiary record — including the Meta data extraction — will carry far more weight than the political claims made by either side. Until that process concludes, the affair places the RN under sustained scrutiny at a moment of considerable electoral consequence.