Key facts
- Hacked emails suggest AfD leader Alice Weidel knew of illegal campaign donations in July 2017, weeks before she previously stated.
- The payments totaling €132,000 were channeled through Swiss intermediaries, violating EU donation rules.
- The AfD was fined €396,000 for the scandal.
Emails from a trove of hacked Alternative for Germany (AfD) accounts appear to contradict the far-right party leader Alice Weidel's previous statements about an illegal campaign donation, Der Spiegel news outlet reported on Friday. The findings emerged from a cache of more than 420,000 internal AfD emails published online on Monday, which journalists are still combing through. The emails suggest Weidel knew of planned donations linked to her 2017 federal election campaign weeks before she has previously said she became aware of them. The payments totaling €132,000 ($147,800) through Swiss intermediaries became one of the most prominent party financing scandals in the AfD's history. Parties in Germany are not allowed to receive support from outside the EU, and the AfD was fined €396,000.