EU anti-fraud agency OLAF opened an investigation in 2014 into the payments and concluded that the European Parliament should recover that money. The parliament's secretary general said that a sum of 41,554 euros ($46,902) of EU funds had been wrongly paid in the period and needed to be reimbursed.
Le Pen challenged that decision at the General Court of the European Union, the EU's second highest court. She cited what she called factual errors, misuse of power, discrimination and OLAF's lack of independence. The court rejected her arguments yesterday, saying they lacked evidence or legal basis.
The General Court also upheld in June a parliamentary decision to recover 300,000 euros related to another person hired by Le Pen as a personal assistant. She can still appeal the decision on points of law to the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court.