Alice Weidel faces scrutiny over leaked AfD emails

Leaked emails from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have placed co-leader Alice Weidel in a difficult position. A massive data breach involving over 420,000 internal emails and 48,000 documents was released online by hackers, who stated the leak was intended to promote transparency.

The documents contradict Weidel’s previous claims regarding an illegal campaign donation scandal from 2017. While Weidel previously maintained she only learned of the €132,000 in illegal donations from Switzerland in September 2017, the leaked correspondence suggests she was informed of the planned funds as early as July 2017.

The funds, which reportedly originated from Swiss real estate billionaire Henning Conley, were used to finance the party’s federal election campaign. Because German political parties are prohibited from accepting donations from outside the European Union, the AfD was previously fined €396,000 for the incident. The party has declined to comment on the authenticity of the emails and has called on the media to refrain from distributing hacked content.