how Jordan Bardella was caught up in the affair even though he is not being prosecuted

In an investigative book, journalist Tristan Berteloot claims that the head of the National Rally contributed to fabricating “false proof” of work when he was parliamentary assistant to Jean-François Jalkh in 2015.

He is not referred to the criminal court, but his name will hang over the trial. In an investigative book by journalist Tristan Berteloot, The Winning Machine: Revelations about the RN marching towards the ElyséeJordan Bardella is accused of having also been part of the “diversion system” of European public funds which means that 25 people, including Marine Le Pen, and the National Rally (RN), will be judged from Monday September 30. If the current boss of the far-right party is not on the dock at the Paris judicial court and has never been heard by the investigators or the judges in this case, he nevertheless contributed, according to the author of the book, to be made “false proof of work” For “deceiving justice”.

Jordan Bardella was, for a few months in 2015, the parliamentary assistant to MEP Jean-François Jalkh, who will ultimately not be judged due to of his state of health “very degraded” after a stroke. According to Tristan Berteloot, his name appears in the organization chart published in February 2015 by the National Front (which became National Rally in June 2018). Jordan Bardella is designated as “mission manager” with Florian Philippot, former vice-president of the FN, while he is also “supposed to be the local parliamentary assistant of MEP Jean-François Jalkh”.

For this mission of “four and a half months”Jordan Bardella “received a salary of 1,200 euros net monthly”i.e. a cost of “10,444 euros” for European authorities, writes the journalist in Releasedaily newspaper for which he works. According to comments reported by the newspaper of former MEP Aymeric Chauprade, who fell out with the RN, Jordan Bardella never “really [exercé] its functions” parliamentary assistant.

At the end of 2017, two years after the opening of an investigation by the French prosecutor’s office into this affair, the team of the rising star of the RN, then spokesperson for the party and soon to be a candidate for the 2019 European elections, “prepare[é] a file of fictitious evidence, backdated to the period when Jordan Bardella was employed as an assistant”says Tristan Berteloot. The file in question contains regional press reviews “covering the contract period” as parliamentary assistant, from February to June 2015. Problem: “search date” was covered with “blanco”. On these documents, Jordan Bardella “handwrote the words ‘local politics’, ‘miscellaneous’, ‘society'”.

In another article published by Releasethe journalist reproduces the copy of a 2015 diary, delivered, according to an order form also reproduced by the daily, to the headquarters of the National Rally in 2018, then filled in by hand by Jordan Bardella for “fabricate other false proofs of work”. Twelve pages include the dates of plenary meetings and trips to Brussels, explains Tristan Berteloot.

Confronted with these documents in the program “Complément d’investigation” broadcast Thursday September 19 on France 2, Jordan Bardella recognized his writing in the press review. “Maybe, and even if it’s the same? I’m not concerned about the assistants’ business,” he brushed off. He also announced that he was going to file a complaint for defamation against the journalist.

The line of defense of the president of the RN varies depending on the interlocutors. Alexandre Varaut, former RN lawyer and now spokesperson for the party in this affair since his election as MEP, maintains to Mediapart that “the diary is a fake. Jordan never wrote this stuff. He saw, it looks like his handwriting, but it’s not his”. Release maintains its information and specifies having submitted these documents “to a professional graphological analysis”. “Cshe concluded that there was very little doubt as to the identity of their author..

In a press release published in early September, the party defended itself from these accusations by explaining that“while he was still a student, Jordan Bardella was employed part-time, from February 16 to June 30, 2015, for remuneration of 1,200 euros net (…) and worked in this context, without any infringement nor irregularity, both with regard to the regulations of the European Parliament and French law”. “After hearing Jean-François Jalkh, neither the European Parliament nor Olaf [l’Office européen de lutte anti-fraude]nor French justice found fault with it. No supporting documents were requested and a fortiori provided to the courts.”argued the RN, considering that “no one will be fooled by this crude attempt at destabilization” Before the opening of the trial.

Will the Paris prosecutor’s office look into these new elements and open a preliminary investigation or an incidental procedure ? Asked by franceinfo, he indicated that he was not, to date, seized of this matter. In total, nine former FN MEPs, twelve former parliamentary assistants as well as four party collaborators will appear during this trial. They face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of one million euros, as well as additional penalties of ineligibility. The European Parliament assessed its damage at 6.8 million euros in this case.