4/1: CBS Evening News Plus
What to expect in Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement;
Read more >> : Cick here
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
France's Marine Le Pen, leading right-wing politician, found guilty of embezzlement, barred from elections
Le Pen was also hit with a four year non-custodial sentence and a more than $100,000 fine
👉 Click Here to read in detail 👈
World
By,
Elaine CobbeMarine Le Pen, the figurehead of the ascendant far-right political movement in France, was hit with a non-custodial prison sentence and barred from running in elections for five years on Monday as a court found her guilty of embezzling European Union funds to pay members of her National Rally party's staff.
In handing down the sentence, the judge said the public office ban would take effect immediately and she will not be able to appeal, which means Le Pen will not be able to run for the French presidency in 2027.
"The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted... was a candidate in the presidential election," judge Benedicte de Perthuis, was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the parliamentary group of the far-right French Rassemblement National (RN) party, leaves the Paris courthouse after her trial on March 31, 2025 in Paris, France. Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty ImagesDe Perthuis also sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison, but said that part of her sentence would be served with her wearing an electronic tag, not in prison, and that two years of the sentence would be suspended. He also fined her more than $100,000. Both the fine and the prison sentence can be appealed.
Recent polling has shown Le Pen is likely to have won at least a first round in France's next national election.Â
Le Pen, 56, garnered 41% of the ballots in the last French presidential election in 2022, and has made no secret of her desire to run again for the nation's highest office.
Sat in the front row of the Paris court, Le Pen whispered "incredible" as the judge detailed his reasoning for the guilty verdict. She walked out of the court before the sentences were even announced.
Le Pen, along with eight current or former party members, had faced up to 10 years in prison on the embezzlement charges. A dozen others who served as parliamentary aides for the National Rally party, formerly the National Front, also received guilty verdicts for their role in the scheme.
The judge said Le Pen and her colleagues did not enrich themselves personally, but called the embezzlement "a democratic bypass" that duped the French parliament and voters.
Le Pen told La Tribune Dimanche on Sunday that the judges had "the right of life or death over our movement."
Le Pen may have no choice now but to cede her party's presidential ambitions to the current party president, Jordan Bardella.
More from CBS News
In: Election Marine Le Pen France European Union Frank Andrews© 2025 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 has broken the record for the longest speech ever delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate, surpassing a 1957 filibuster by Strom Thurmond that had stood for nearly seven decades. Booker began speaking at 7 p.m. on Monday and continued into Tuesday evening, reaching 24 hours and 19 minutes at […] %23corybooker)
 — Cory Booker ends a more than 25-hour floor speech against Trump's actions, the longest in Senate history. %23corybooker){kind=logo}
