French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Stands Trial over Alleged Misuse of EU Funds

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
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French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Stands Trial over Alleged Misuse of EU Funds

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)

Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN) party, will stand trial in a Paris criminal court on Monday alongside 26 others over alleged misappropriation of European Union funds.

Coming almost a decade after initial investigations started, the trial presents Le Pen with an opportunity to clear herself of accusations she has always denied as she keeps polishing the party's image in a bid to make it fit for government.

However, it also carries the risk of casting the spotlight on the RN's recurring troubles with the law.

Party officials and employees, former lawmakers and parliamentary assistants are accused of using money destined for EU parliamentary work to pay staff who were working for the RN, which at the time was called the National Front.

EU lawmakers are allocated funds to cover expenses, including their assistants, but are not meant to use them to cross-fund party activities.

Many European political parties - especially smaller ones eligible for less national funding - have used EU money to hire promising talent as aides to EU lawmakers.

Current RN party head Jordan Bardella, who is also a member of the European Parliament, used to work in such an assistant role. He is not part of the trial.

Le Pen's party, which sits with the main group of euro-sceptic and nationalist parties in the European Parliament and argues for "France first" policies on issues ranging from immigration, energy markets and agriculture, denies the charges.

CHARGES

Marine Le Pen is facing charges both for her role as party leader and as an EU lawmaker who hired allegedly fictitious assistants herself.

Prosecutors say another of the defendants, Thierry Legier, had really worked as a bodyguard to Le Pen and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, while receiving a salary as a parliamentary assistant between 2005 and 2012.

RN lawmaker and party spokesman Laurent Jacobelli told Reuters last week that Marine Le Pen was not worried about the trial.

"She knows that what we are accused of is having a different understanding, as a French party, of what an assistant role is, compared with the European Parliament's understanding," he said.

If found guilty, Le Pen and other defendants could face a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years, a one million euro ($1.12 million) fine, and be barred for up to five years from public office.

Le Pen has lost twice to Emmanuel Macron in the second round of France’s presidential elections, in 2017 and 2022, and is widely seen as a frontrunner in the next one in 2027.

The Paris public prosecutor's office opened a probe in 2016, prompted by a 2015 report from the European Parliament president to the French justice minister, followed by a police investigation.

Investigators looked at the situation of 49 RN parliamentary assistants over the past three European Parliament terms. They charged 11 RN members of the EU assembly, including Marine Le Pen and her father, for misappropriation of EU funds, and charged 13 parliamentary assistants with receiving the funds.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96, will not attend the trial for health reasons.

The trial will last until November 27.

The RN is under another preliminary investigation, launched in July by the Paris prosecutor's office, into alleged illegal financing of its 2022 presidential campaign.



Harris Reiterates Support for Gaza Ceasefire as Conflict Escalates

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
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Harris Reiterates Support for Gaza Ceasefire as Conflict Escalates

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Washington will continue to pressure Israel and other players in the Middle East to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza even as advocates say that the United States has not thus far used its leverage over its ally.

In an interview with CBS news show "60 Minutes," Harris said that diplomatic work with Israel is "an ongoing pursuit," according to a clip released on Sunday.

Harris sidestepped a question in the interview on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a "real close ally."

"I think with all due respect the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people and the answer to that question is yes," Harris said, Reuters reported.

Harris reiterated Washington's position to support Israel's right to self defense against Iran and Iran-backed militant groups like Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.

"Now the work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles," Harris said.

"We're not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region including Arab leaders," Harris said.

Washington's occasional condemnation of Israel over the war's civilian death toll has mostly been verbal with no substantive change in policy.

Advocates say Washington has not put pressure on its ally by refusing to put an arms embargo that anti-war protesters around the United States and the world have demanded for months. Protests were also held over the weekend.

President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for Gaza on May 31 but a deal between Israel and Hamas has not been reached due to gaps in exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Israel's demand that it maintain presence in a corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel has also been separately carrying out a military campaign in Lebanon which in recent days has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million.