Revelations on the hidden mobile phone of Alexandre Benalla

According to new investigations, the former collaborator of Emmanuel Macron deliberately sought to remove his personal phone from justice. Revelations.

After his personal safe disappeared, another mystery hangs over the Benalla affair. Where did the mobile phone with which Emmanuel Macron's former collaborator warned the Élysée that he had been filmed on 1 May 2018 in Paris, molesting demonstrators? Heard in police custody on July 21, Alexandre Benalla indicates it to the investigators himself: "I sent this message with a telephone that I no longer have, I lost it. I kept the data on a USB key that I intend to communicate but for now, I do not want to say where it is. "

Provocateur, the former assistant to the chief of staff of the Elysee shows little prolix on this mobile, "personal and unsecure", which he "does not want to give evidence." He only agrees to give the police his professional phone - under seal. Did the lost device contain messages or documents that could inform the investigation? The investigating judges are in any case intrigued. Several times, they order Benalla the return of the famous backup of its contents on USB key.

"I must find it in my move, in my business that is in Normandy," pleads the young man of 27 years during an interrogation on October 5. "What are you waiting for us to give? The judges are hurting. Answer: "That you ask me. Relaunched last February by mail and during his hearing, Alexandre Benalla finally said to have "lost the USB key in successive moves".

The number used traced

On the other hand, it provides a screen shot of the Telegram message sent to Alexis Kohler, Secretary General of the Elysee, informing him of the incidents of May 1st. Message that he would have saved from his lost phone. In this correspondence of May 2, the young man explains having integrated as an observer "a team of police in civilian clothes". "I did not stop at my role and assisted the police who were trying to arrest two people who had thrown projectiles and raped police in plain clothes," he wrote.

The rather violent scene was filmed and even if one does not identify me very clearly, I am recognizable. "

But magistrates are not content with this message. They want at all costs to identify the mobile with which it was sent. A decisive piece of information reaches them thanks to the hearing ... of Alexis Kohler, Emmanuel Macron's closest collaborator. Heard by the Inspectorate General of the National Police (IGPN) April 17 at the Elysee Palace, the senior official confirms the existence of this exchange.

At the request of the investigators, he reveals the number used by Alexandre Benalla. "Why do you think Mr. Benalla does not want to share the information on his phone? The police question him. "I have no explanation [...] about the discretion on this phone," says Kohler.

A call to the cabinet of Brigitte Macron

Thanks to the number provided by Emmanuel Macron's right arm, the investigators retrace the history of Benalla's personal phone. They discover that the cell allegedly lost the same morning of his custody in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris. A call is detected to the number of Ludovic Chaker, adviser of the Elysee, then the device is cut. This one is then re-lit the next evening, at the time of the end of custody of Benalla.

There, a call is made to the number of the director of cabinet of Brigitte Macron. According to technical expertise, Alexandre Benalla then changes cell phone models twice in recent months, once at his mother's home in Eure, another in Morocco, but keeps the SIM card associated with his personal number. Scathing conclusion of the police: "The statement of Mr. Benalla, This device, I lost it, is false" and "his false statements".

Several calls from PP executives

Why did the ex-counselor lie about the loss of his phone? Where is the case today, which has never hosted a chip? One thing is certain: this phone does not fix its business. Shortly after the revelation of the May 1 scandal, Alexandre Benalla obtained a CD containing surveillance footage from the police headquarters that was supposed to clear him of his intervention on May 1st.

SAISI