French judge Magali Lafourcade said that in May 2025, she was visited by two representatives of the Donald Trump administration who tried to influence her position in the criminal case of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Lafourcade spoke about this on the France5 TV channel.
According to Lafourcade, the meeting took place at the request of the US Embassy in Paris. Formally, the conversation was supposed to concern human rights issues — in this format the judge regularly communicates with diplomats of friendly countries. However, the conversation very quickly shifted to Marine Le Penʼs criminal case.
The judge said Trump administration officials tried to get her and others to argue that the case against Le Pen was “purely political” and aimed at preventing her from running. Lafourcade said she was struck by the content and tone of the conversation, although it remained formal.
The judge emphasized that for the first time in her practice, after such a meeting, she officially informed the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs about its content. According to her, the department took this signal seriously. The meeting took place on May 28, 2025.
Lafourcade also drew attention to subsequent developments that she said showed a global trend of pressure on judges. She mentioned the sanctions against Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes following his rulings in the case of his associate Jair Bolsonaro, as well as the sanctions against International Criminal Court judge Nicolas Guillou. According to her, such sanctions effectively equate judges with terrorists or major criminals and make normal life impossible.
The judge emphasized that there is currently no direct threat to French judges, but called for vigilance and a decisive response, since, according to her, this is not just about France, but about a broader international campaign of pressure on the independent judiciary.
- Marine Le Pen is one of the most influential far-right politicians in France, a long-time leader of the National Rally party, and a presidential candidate several times. In a criminal case currently being considered by French courts, Marine Le Pen and her associates are accused of misusing European Parliament funds. According to investigators, money intended to pay parliamentary assistants in Brussels was used to finance the partyʼs activities in France for years.
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