PARIS (AP) — Marine Le Pen's appeal trial over alleged misuse of European Parliament funds is ending Wednesday with one question looming above all others: will the French far-right leader be able to run for president next year?
Le Pen, 57, is challenging a March 2025 verdict that found her and over 20 other members of her National Rally party guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016 and banned her from holding elected office for five years.
Click to Gallery
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, center, arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
She denies accusations she was at the center of a fraudulent system meant to siphon off European Union funds.
The outcome of the appeal trial will be announced at a later date, likely before summer.
Here's why the outcome of the five-week trial at the Paris appeals court may change the course of France’s 2027 presidential election.
Le Pen was widely seen as a top contender to succeed centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 election until a Paris court banned her from holding office over charges of misusing public money.
She was twice a contender in the run-off against Macron in 2017 and 2022 and her National Rally party has been coming out on top in opinion polls in recent years.
The appeal trial is a second chance to win an acquittal that would clear her path to the presidential race.
If convicted, Le Pen could be sentenced to a ban on holding an elected office. In that case, she has said, her 30-year-old protege Jordan Bardella would run instead.
Bardella's popularity has surged in recent years, but some observers have pointed to his relative lack of experience, especially with international and economic affairs, as a potential weakness for a presidential bid.
Le Pen is joined in her appeal by 10 other officials who were convicted last year, as well as the party itself.
They're seeking to overturn convictions for misusing funding meant for European parliament aides between 2004 and 2016, while Le Pen was serving as a member of the European parliament.
Prosecutors say she hired several people as EU parliamentary aides but made them work for her party instead. The investigation showed some of the people had no contact with members of the EU parliament at all, and one acted as Le Pen's bodyguard in violation of parliamentary rules.
In March 2025, a Paris court ruled that Le Pen was at the heart of “a fraudulent system” that her party used to siphon off EU Parliament funds worth 2.9 million euros ($3.4 million). She was given a five-year ban from holding elected office, two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet, and a further two-year suspended sentence.
Le Pen denounced a “democratic scandal," while anti-corruption campaigners argued that her conviction was proof that no one is above the law.
Advocacy group Transparency France noted that the verdict came after years of investigation and a lengthy trial in which Le Pen and other party members were able to freely defend their positions.
House arrest sentences are on hold until the appeal is resolved.
The earlier verdict is not expected to influence the trial that ends Wednesday, which began afresh. In France, criminal defendants have the right to ask a higher court to re-hear their case after conviction.
During the appeal trial, Le Pen acknowledged some employees paid as EU parliamentary aides performed work for her party, then known as the National Front, but insisted that she believed such work was allowed and never attempted to hide it.
“The mistake lies here: there were certainly some aides, on a case-by-case basis, who must have worked either marginally, more substantially, or entirely … for the benefit of the party. And voilà,” Le Pen told the three-judge panel.
She also reproached EU Parliament officials not warning her party, at the time, that the way it was hiring people was potentially against any rules.
“We have never concealed anything,” she insisted.
The party’s lawyer argued Wednesday there was a “grey area” regarding the rules that should benefits the defendants. “There have been perhaps some administrative shortcomings, perhaps carelessness, hastiness,” but overall party officials acted in good faith, David Dassa-Le Deist said.
Prosecutors argued the financing of employees by EU money was unfair to other domestic political parties and that Le Pen, a lawyer by training, could not have failed to notice the discrepancy between aides’ actual jobs and the contracts they signed.
One prosecutor, Stéphane Madoz-Blanchet, pointed to “public money siphoned off drop by drop until it formed a river.” He denounced “a system” led by Le Pen.
“The acts of misappropriation of public funds were deliberately and carefully concealed,” he said.
Thierry Ramonatxo, another prosecutor, said the alleged misappropriation of public funds represents “a very serious breach of probity” that gave the party “a concrete advantage in the form of substantial savings made at the expense of the European Parliament.”
They have asked the court to ban Le Pen from holding elected office for five years and to sentence her to one year under house arrest with an electronic tag.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, center, arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives for her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
RIO RICO, Ariz. (AP) — A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, hours after the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished from her Arizona home.
News outlets later interviewed a man who said he was questioned and released. Authorities have not confirmed that the person they picked up was released.
Officers detained the person during a traffic stop south of Tucson, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. It did not immediately provide details about the person or the location. The FBI referred questions to the sheriff’s office.
A Phoenix, Arizona, television station, KNXV-TV, interviewed a delivery man who said he had been detained by police on suspicions of kidnapping Guthrie. He said he and his wife pulled the car over when they noticed that police were following them. The man, who gave only his first name and said he lived in the town of Rio Rico, said he was innocent and that police released him after several hours. His account could not be independently verified. Local and federal authorities have not confirmed that the person who they had detained was released.
The department and the FBI were conducting a court-authorized search Tuesday night at a location in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, the department said in a statement. It was expected to take several hours.
Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1 and since then the case has gripped the nation. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie or finding who was responsible.
Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have released a series of video statements pleading for the return of their mother and indicating a willingness to pay a ransom. Authorities have described Nancy Guthrie as mentally sound but with limited mobility. She takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said repeatedly.
The community of Rio Rico — population 20,000 — is roughly an hour's drive from Guthrie's home and about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The videos released earlier Tuesday show a person wearing a ski mask and a backpack. At one point, they tilt their head down and away from a doorbell camera while approaching Guthrie's front door. The footage also shows the person holding a flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the camera with a gloved hand and part of a plant ripped from the yard.
The videos — less than a combined minute in length — gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Guthrie's home in the foothills outside Tucson. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to "have tampered with the camera." It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.
The videos were pulled from data on "back-end systems” after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said.
“This will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. “Even when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they’re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.”
Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Guthrie’s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.
Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media Tuesday, saying the family believes their mother is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments.
Investigators had hoped cameras would turn up evidence right away about how Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in an secluded neighborhood.
But the doorbell camera was disconnected early on Feb. 1. While software recorded movement at the home minutes later, Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had initially said none of the footage could be recovered. Officials continued working to get the footage.
Heartbreaking messages by Savannah Guthrie and her family shifted from hopeful to bleak as they made pleas for whoever took Nancy Guthrie. In a video just ahead of a purported ransom deadline Monday, Savannah Guthrie appeared alone and spoke directly to the public.
“We are at an hour of desperation,” she said. “We need your help.”
Much of the nation is closely following the case involving the longtime anchor of NBC’s morning show.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump watched the new surveillance footage and was in “pure disgust,” encouraging anyone with information to call the FBI.
The FBI this week began posting digital billboards about the case in major cities from Texas to California.
Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Monday that the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Guthrie’s family and any suspected kidnappers. Authorities also had not identified any suspects, he said.
Three days after the search began, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings sent their first public appeal to whoever took their mother, saying, “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.”
In the recorded video, Guthrie said her family was aware of media reports about a ransom letter, but they first wanted proof their mother was alive.
"Please reach out to us,” they said.
The next day, Savannah Guthrie’s brother again made a plea, saying, “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven’t heard anything directly."
Then over the past weekend, the family posted another video — one that was more cryptic and generated even more speculation about Nancy Guthrie's fate.
“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” said Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
Golden reported from Seattle and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville in Washington, Ed White in Detroit, and Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
This story has been amended to correct the name of the television station.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Sheriff's officials block the entrance to a road where a home was being searched in Rio Rico, Arizona, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in connection to the investigation of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
