French investigators probe Marine Le Pen's 2022 campaign finances
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00:00You could say it's been a bad week for Marine Le Pen.
00:04First, her far-right National Rally Party came in third in legislative elections after many predicted it would win.
00:10Now, the 2027 presidential hopeful is facing questions about the financing of her campaign in 2022,
00:18a race she lost to Emmanuel Macron.
00:21The probe was launched following a report by the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing,
00:27whose role it is to scrutinize candidates' election expenses and funding.
00:32Details are forthcoming, but prosecutors say they're looking into allegations of embezzlement,
00:37forgery, fraud, and the acceptance of a loan by the campaign.
00:42Le Pen, who has run for president three times, has previously denied wrongdoing in connection with campaign financing,
00:48and it's not the first time she's faced such scrutiny.
00:52Ahead of Le Pen's 2017 presidential run, the National Rally took out a 9.4 million euro loan from a Russian bank
01:00owned by a billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin.
01:03The loan has since been repaid, but it prompted allegations that she and her party were under the Kremlin's influence,
01:10accusations she denied at the time.
01:13You want to know why? I'll tell you why.
01:16Because if I was forced to take a foreign loan, and that's no secret,
01:19everyone knows it because it's a matter of public record.
01:23It's because there was no French bank that wanted to offer me a loan.
01:29Separately, Le Pen is to stand trial in September, along 27 others,
01:34over alleged misuse of about 5 million euros in EU funds.
01:38The National Rally is accused of giving party members fake jobs at the European Parliament
01:43and paying them to do party work in France, charges the National Rally has vowed to disprove.