Le Pen’s Chief Of Staff, Bodyguard Detained By Police

It is getting difficult to keep track of all the parallel (alleged) financial scandals involving French presidential candidates.
Several weeks after presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s campaign nearly ended over a sprawling graft scandal involving allegations he used public funds to pay the wages of his wife and children, on Wednesday, French police detained two of Marine Le Pen’s closest aides: her bodyguard and chief of staff, for questioning over alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants, Le Pen’s lawyer said.
Le Pen slammed the latest move in what Reuters dubbed “a financial sleaze case” that has landed her in the spotlight alongside another leading candidate, Francois Fillon, a right-winger being investigated over public funds he paid to his wife and children. Wary that her image and lead position in polls of voting intentions could be hurt, Le Pen said she was convinced voters would not fall for what her lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi called a “manipulation” designed to destabilize her.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Feb 22, 2017.