French President Emmanuel Macron faces the biggest political crisis of his tenure after the interior minister and a police chief said the presidency told them in May it would deal with a bodyguard filmed hitting protesters.
Critics say Macron's office failed to punish the head of his security detail sufficiently or refer him to judicial authorities because he has become lofty and out of touch with ordinary people since taking office 14 months ago.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told lawmakers during a two-and-a-half hour grilling he took no action after the presidency assured him on May 2 that bodyguard Alexandre Benalla would be punished.
His comments were echoed by the Paris police chief, who was also heard by parliament.
Benalla was placed under investigation on Sunday after Le Monde identified him in footage at the May Day protests in Paris. He was off duty and wearing a riot helmet and police tags while embedded as an observer.
The video shows him dragging a woman away from a protest and later beating a male demonstrator.
"I considered that the facts that were flagged were being dealt with at the appropriate level, so I did not get involved further on this issue," Collomb told lawmakers.
Collomb said he spoke by phone to the president on May 1 while Macron was in Australia, but at that time was not aware of the video. The minister said he did not know Benalla was part of Macron's team and thought he was a police officer.
Paris police chief Michel Delpuech, who called the scandal a case of "toxic cronyism", said he had been informed of the video by an official at the Elysee palace on the morning of May 2, which was for him the "appropriate line of command".
Macron fired Benalla on Friday but faced criticism for failing to act sooner. Benalla had initially been suspended for 15 days before being brought back into Macron's entourage.
He is seen in numerous photos and TV footage alongside Macron during public and private events, from the 2017 presidential campaign to the celebration of France's World Cup victory in Paris.
Benalla's lawyers said in a statement published by TF1 TV that their client had acted "vigorously" but had not caused any injury.
