US President Donald Trump has said that the criminal prosecution of French opposition leader Marine Le Pen reminds him of his own legal battles under the Biden administration.
On Monday, Le Pen, the ex-leader of the conservative National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which will be suspended, and was barred from holding public office for five years. The embezzlement conviction effectively bars her from the 2027 presidential race.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the verdict, Trump replied, “That’s a very big deal.”
“I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything,” Trump said.
“But she was banned [from] running for five years, and she’s the leading candidate. That sounds very much like this country,” he added.
Trump has often claimed that the court cases and investigations into his activities were part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” led by the Biden administration and the Democrats.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said earlier that the prosecution of Le Pen was “particularly concerning, given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President Trump here in the United States.”
According to the prosecutors, Le Pen siphoned off the EU funds intended for covering her staff’s work in the European Parliament to fund the activities of her party in France. She had denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the verdict as “a fatal day for our democracy.”
Le Pen’s party holds the highest number of seats in the National Assembly. According to the Ifop poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday, between 34% and 37% of those surveyed said they planned to vote for Le Pen in 2027, which is more than 10 points ahead of her nearest rival, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. Le Pen ran for president three times, placing second in 2017 and 2022.
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