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41m ago

French Magistrate Says U.S. Envoys Sought Arguments Portraying Le Pen Trial as Political

The disclosure coincides with Le Pen’s Paris appeal over an embezzlement conviction.

Image
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament from the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, arrives for a hearing in her appeal trial alongside the RN party itself and 10 others defendants found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds, at the Paris courthouse on the Ile de la Cite, in Paris, France, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament from the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, arrives for a hearing in her appeal trial alongside the RN party itself and 10 others defendants found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds, at the Paris courthouse on the Ile de la Cite, in Paris, France, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, left, walks outside the courtroom during a short break in her appeals trial in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Overview

  • Magali Lafourcade says two U.S. State Department advisers raised Marine Le Pen’s legal situation in a May 28, 2025 meeting arranged by the U.S. embassy in Paris and sought elements to frame the case as politically driven.
  • Lafourcade identified the visitors as senior policy adviser Samuel Samson and diplomat Christopher Anderson and says she notified the French foreign ministry after the exchange.
  • POLITICO reports Samson asked whether her human-rights body could intervene over Le Pen’s election ban, and Lafourcade replied it does not act in individual cases.
  • A Der Spiegel report that Washington considered sanctioning judges from Le Pen’s trial was disputed by a senior U.S. diplomat as “stale and false,” while the State Department and the embassy did not provide detailed public comment on the meeting.
  • Le Pen is appealing a March 2025 conviction for misuse of European Parliament funds that includes a five-year ban from office, with hearings running from January 13 to February 12 and a verdict expected before summer.