PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron's former security aide, at the heart of a damaging political scandal, has told a Senate commission that he turned in his two diplomatic passports after being fired last summer but they were returned to him two months later.

Alexandre Benalla said Monday that the passports were returned to him in October "by a salaried person at the Elysee."

He didn't name the person, saying only that the still-active passports were handed to him in a street, and he used them 23 times.

The commission is probing what authorities have described as state "disfunction," surrounding the mysterious role of the one-time aide.

Benalla was handed preliminary charges last week for abusive use of the documents. He was charged earlier for allegedly violent behavior at a May protest.