Still, French journalists and their supporters saw the move as new proof of the adversarial stance toward the media of Mr. Macron, who recently faced pushback after deciding to move the press room outside of the Élysée Palace, the seat of the presidency.

Journalists at dozens of publications issued a statement this week expressing “solidarity with our colleagues” at Mediapart. The National Union of Journalists — referring to the attempted raid and to laws passed this year on the protection of trade secrets and on so-called fake news — described it as worrying that “journalists’ duty to inform can be flouted in this way, in France, in 2019.”

The episode was the latest of many tied to Mr. Benalla, who was fired last summer as a security aide to Mr. Macron after it was revealed he had hit a protester at a May 1 demonstration.

Once billed the most serious threat to Mr. Macron, the Benalla affair died down and was eclipsed in France’s news cycle by the “Yellow Vest” economic protests against the president — until a steady stream of news reports in recent weeks raised questions about how the Élysée had handled the earlier case, and whether Mr. Benalla had used his ties to the presidency to obtain business contracts.

In the audio recordings, which date to July and which Mediapart published last week as part of a wider investigation, Mr. Benalla can be heard discussing the case against him with Vincent Crase, who had also worked on security for the Élysée and for Mr. Macron’s party, and who is being investigated over accusations similar to those against Mr. Benalla.