US Vice President JD Vance said, on Thursday, April 4, that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of a very minor offense and barring her from running for office was "not democracy." Le Pen, considered a leading candidate in the 2027 election, was found guilty by a French court on Monday of embezzlement of European Parliament expenses and banned from running from public office for five years. "They're trying to throw her in prison and throw her off the ballot," Vance said in an interview with the Newsmax television channel. "Look, that's not democracy." He said Le Pen had been "leading in some polls" for France's 2027 presidential election and had been convicted of an "incredibly minor charge that implicates, by the way, her staff, not even Marine Le Pen herself."
US President Donald Trump also weighed in on the sentence late Thursday, calling it a "Witch Hunt" by "European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent." "I don't know Marine Le Pen, but do appreciate how hard she worked for so many years," Trump posted on his platform Truth Social. "She suffered losses, but kept on going, and now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about – Sounds like a 'bookkeeping' error to me," he added. "It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on. FREE MARINE LE PEN!"
Trump had earlier this week compared Le Pen's conviction to his own legal battles. "She was banned from running for five years and she was the leading candidate. That sounds like this country, that sounds very much like this country," he said, describing the court ruling as "a very big deal." Trump was convicted in New York of falsifying business records to pay hush money to a porn star, but two federal criminal cases brought against him were dropped after he won November's presidential election.