France’s Le Pen and 26 Others on Trial Over Misuse of EU Funds

Marine Le Pen, who led France’s right-wing National Rally (RN) party for a decade, goes on trial in Paris on Monday, along with 26 others, accused of misappropriating European Union funds. Le Pen, who handed over leadership of the RN in 2022 to Jordan Bardella, is accused of charges in her role as party leader and also as a member of the European Parliament, as she was between 2004 and 2017. The criminal investigation began a decade ago and many of the charges date back long before her first run for the French presidency, in 2012. Le Pen, 56, denies all the charges, some of which are related to allegedly creating fictional assistants who were paid from EU funds....