PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is once again being forced to bat down accusations of racist behavior following allegations that nine lawmakers from the far-right party were part of a Facebook group containing hateful messages.

A report by online publication Les Jours alleged that these MPs were members of a group called “France with [National Rally President] Jordan Bardella” that featured several posts with “antisemitic, homophobic, Islamophobic, and racist remarks.” Les Jours claimed that the group’s administrators were parliamentary assistants, former National Rally candidates and local party officials.

As of Thursday, the Facebook group, which reportedly included upward of 11,000 members, could no longer be found.

National Rally representatives have insisted that the MPs who were members of the group were not aware of its content. “When you receive an invitation to France with Jordan Bardella and you’re a National Rally activist, you often think that it might be a nice group, and you don’t necessarily look at the content,” party Vice President Sébastien Chenu told FranceInfo Thursday.

“None of the MPs liked the publications,” he argued.

Chenu also fielded questions about the murder of a 46-year-old Tunisian man in southern France last weekend, a case that is being investigated as potentially racially motivated terrorism. The suspect, a French man born in 1971, posted videos of himself on his social media accounts before and after the crime.

What appears to be his Facebook account included some reposts of content from Le Pen and other party leaders as well as a flurry of comments on topics like immigration and Islam.

“I want to condemn this abominable murder,” Chenu said Thursday. “Our cause is not based on racial opposition … This person misunderstood what they thought they were defending.”