President Donald Trump had demanded that France ‘free’ presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Marine Le Pen, 56, was recently found guilty of orchestrating sham roles at the EU parliament. She exploited funds intended for hiring aides to instead enlist individuals working for her party in France.
As the influential figure of the far-right National Rally (RN), she received a five-year ban from participating in elections. Additionally, she was handed a four-year prison term, but given that half of it was suspended and the remainder will be served through an electronic monitoring device, she will not be incarcerated.
Donald Trump expressed his stance on the matter via his Truth Social platform. He highlighted his belief that the case against Le Pen exemplifies how European left-leaning groups resort to legal maneuvers to stifle free expression and silence political adversaries, to the extent of imprisoning them.
‘It is the same “playbook” that was used against me by a group of Lunatics and Losers, like Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Lisa Monaco.
‘They spent the last nine years thinking of nothing else, and they FAILED, because the People of the United States realized that they were only Corrupt Lawyers and Politicians.
‘I don’t know Marine Le Pen, but do appreciate how hard she worked for so many years. She suffered losses, but kept on going, and now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about – Sounds like a “bookkeeping” error to me.
‘It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on. FREE MARINE LE PEN!’
Donald Trump is preparing to unveil a slew of new tariffs on Wednesday amid a Senate push to block him from implementing these sanctions on Canada
Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) parliamentary group, leaves the National Rally headquarters after the verdict
Monday’s verdict was seen as a hammer blow to Le Pen’s long-held hopes of ascending to the presidency in 2027.
She was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and her party was docked $2 million – half of which must be paid definitively, while the other half would be demanded in the event of a repeat offence.
Le Pen could appeal her sentence. If her bid fails, she will get a four-year prison sentence – two of which were suspended and two to be served under house arrest.
Twenty-four people, including Le Pen, were convicted – all of them RN party officials or assistants. Only one defendant was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
Le Pen said she will appeal.
She argued the court should not have made her ineligible to run for office until all her chances at appeal had been exhausted, and that by doing so it was clear the court was aiming ‘specifically to prevent’ her from being elected president.
‘If that’s not a political decision, I don’t know what is,’ Le Pen said in the TF1 interview.
She said the ruling marked a ‘fateful day for our democracy’ but vowed to keep pursuing what she called the now ‘admittedly narrow’ path to the presidency.
‘There are millions of French people who believe in me, millions of French people who trust me,’ she added.
‘For 30 years I’ve been fighting for you, and for 30 years I’ve been fighting against injustice, so I’m going to continue fighting.’
She is allowed to keep her seat in the French Parliament.
Earlier this week, Trump compared himself to convicted French presidential candidate, calling her ban from elective office a ‘very big deal.’
calling her ban from elective office a ‘very big deal.’
‘That’s a big deal. That’s a very big deal,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He expressed sympathy for Le Pen and said her situation ‘sounds very much like this country.’
‘That’s a big deal. That’s a very big deal,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He expressed sympathy for Le Pen and said her situation ‘sounds very much like this country.’
‘I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything and I don’t know that it means conviction but she was banned for running for five years and she’s the leading candidate. That sounds like this country. That sounds very much like this country,’ he added.
Trump has long portrayed himself the victim of a government ‘witch hunt’ and politically motivated prosecutions.
Trump has been subject to many lawsuits from state and federal governments:
- The state of New York convicted him in 2024 of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels but his sentencing was indefinitely postponed following his second election to the presidency
- Before the November 2024, a federal judge dismissed the federal charges relating to Trump’s handling of classified documents
- After Trump’s election, the special counsel decided to abandon the federal charges related to the 2020 election, citing the Justice Department policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents
- A case against in Georgia is on pause while the courts decide whether a state-level prosecutor can prosecute a sitting president
He denied wrongdoing in all the cases.
Other officials in the Trump administration have echoed the president’s stance on Le Pen.
Trump’s DOGE adviser Elon Musk also slammed the French court’s decision, saying: ‘When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents. This is their standard playbook throughout the world.’
And State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the department was ‘aware’ of Le Pen’s sentencing.
‘Exclusion of people from the political process is particularly concerning given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President [Donald] Trump here in the United States,’ Bruce said.
But she declined to comment specifically on Le Pen’s case.
