French prosecutors are reviewing a report accusing right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other party leaders of misusing public funds during her tenure in the European Parliament.
The report claims Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie, who is also the founder of Le Pen’s National Rally party, and other party leaders misused 617,000 euros, or about $666,134, in public money for “fictitious” reasons, including event and staff expenses.
Rodolphe Bosselut, the National Rally party lawyer, said Le Pen denies any wrongdoing and questioned the timing of the report, which was released on the French news website Mediapart a week before the presidential runoff election in which Le Pen faces incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, on Sunday.
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The report alleging the misuse was filed with Paris prosecutors last month by the European Union anti-fraud agency OLAF. The prosecutors office said it is “in the course of analyzing the agency’s report” and has not opened any investigation of its own. Prosecutors haven’t released any more details about the report.
National Rally President Jordan Bardella told Europe 1 radio that the people would not listen to attempts by the European Union to smear Le Pen.
“The French will not be fooled by attempts of the European Union and the European institutions … to interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marine Le Pen,” Bardella said, according to Reuters.
Bardella added that the party would be filing a legal complaint against OLAF in response to the report.
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Le Pen, who served in the European Parliament from 2004-2017, also faced preliminary charges in 2018 of using European Parliament aides for non-EU business, which surfaced during her first race against Macron in 2017.
Macron is leading in the election’s final week in a tighter race than 2017. Le Pen and Macron will face off in a final debate Wednesday.
