An associate of President Macron went on trial yesterday for drugging a female subordinate who claims that his connections have shielded him from sex assault charges.
Laurent Bigorgne, 48, former director of the Institut Montaigne, a powerful think tank, has admitted putting Ecstasy in the champagne of Sophie Conrad, its head of public policy, at his flat in February. He resigned after his arrest that month.
Bigorgne, whose flat was the address for Macron’s new En Marche party in 2016, told police there was no sexual motive. He said he had taken cocaine and wanted to relax Conrad, 40, before they discussed work.
Conrad, whose sister is divorced from Bigorgne, went straight to the police from his flat. He faces up to five years in
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