French deputy who triggered the X criminal probe tells Public he targeted Musk’s politics — not foreign interference.

Michael Shellenberger reported on 18 September 2026 in Public that French National Assembly deputy Éric Bothorel — whose January 2025 complaint helped trigger the Paris prosecutor’s criminal investigation of X — now says he was targeting Elon Musk’s politics and X’s algorithm, not foreign interference, according to the Public exclusive and Bothorel’s statements quoted there, opened for this pack. Soft FLAG: Public is a paid exclusive; desk opened the article page and Shellenberger’s same-day X post summarizing it.

The motion is a named complainant restating the content of his own complaint against the investigation’s public framing. Soft FLAG: Public recounts that when the Paris prosecutor opened the investigation in July 2025, the communiqué signed by Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said two complaints — one from a deputy and one from a senior official of a French public institution — “reported the supposed use of the X (ex-Twitter) algorithm for purposes of foreign interference,” and that global headlines followed that foreign-interference frame through the later Paris office raid and summons of Musk. Soft FLAG: the second complainant remains unnamed in the opened Public excerpt.

Bothorel told Public he was not speaking in his complaint of foreign interference but of “deliberate interventions by the owner or any other person at X, ex-Twitter, that seemed to alter the original functioning of the algorithm.” He wrote that late-2024 feeds seemed “more and more politically oriented, all going in one particular direction,” and shared the January 2025 letter with Public. Soft FLAG: quote translations from French are via Public/Shellenberger; desk did not open a separate French primary of the letter beyond Public’s account.

Named actors in the opened piece: Bothorel (complainant deputy); Beccuau (prosecutor whose July 2025 communiqué used the foreign-interference characterisation); Musk / X (investigated platform); Shellenberger / Public (reporter and outlet). Soft FLAG: Public’s headline and subhed extend into an argument that Macron’s government is using related justification for broader domestic censorship — that is author framing. Keep it out of the hed/dek; if colour is needed, attribute as Shellenberger’s argument, not as established fact.

What the facts show without mood: a gap between the complainant’s stated intent (algorithm / owner politics) and the prosecutor’s public characterisation (foreign interference) that organised subsequent coverage and enforcement steps. Soft FLAG: do not assert the investigation has collapsed or that prosecutors lack an independent theory — opened sources establish Bothorel’s restatement, not a case disposition.

What to watch without mood: any Paris prosecutor statement responding to Bothorel’s Public interview; whether the unnamed second complainant’s filing is published; court calendar steps on the X matter that cite interference vs algorithm-bias counts.

Floor: Bothorel to Public 18 Sep — Jan 2025 complaint targeted X algorithm / Musk politics, not foreign interference (Bothorel via Public); Paris prosecutor July 2025 communiqué framed foreign interference; raid/summons followed that frame.