Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (left) meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the Plaza Hotel in New York on September 19, 2016.
Dominic Reuters | AFP | Getty Images
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding that Donald Trump produce evidence that he never received any funds from Egypt. Withdraw $10 million The bank received the funding from the country’s state-owned banks in 2017, days before Trump took office.
Democrats said in a letter on Tuesday that they are investigating allegations that Trump accepted a “cash bribe” from Egypt’s president and that former Attorney General Bill Barr and others blocked a Justice Department investigation into the potential bribe.
The letter comes from Reps. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democratic leader, and Rep. Robert Garcia, minority leader of the national security subcommittee inspired by a report The Washington Post revealed the existence of a secret Justice Department investigation.
“You will no doubt agree that the American people deserve to know whether former presidents and current presidential candidates have accepted illegal campaign contributions from brutal foreign dictators,” they wrote.
They also asked Trump to provide information about the $10 million in one-time funding he committed to his campaign in late 2016, including the source of any funds he used to repay “donations or loans.”
The Washington Post first reported the letter from raskin and garcia Tuesday morning. Democrats on Republican-majority panel have no authority to publish summons.
Asked about the letter, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang told CNBC in an email, “This is textbook fake news.”
“The investigation mentioned did not reveal any wrongdoing and has therefore been closed. None of the reported accusations or implications have any basis in fact,” Zhang said.
“The media has been deceived by Deep State Trump haters and malicious actors peddling hoaxes and hoaxes,” he added.
The Washington Post reported on August 2 that federal investigators received confidential intelligence that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi tried to boost Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 by donating $10 million. Win the election.
Investigators from a team assembled by former special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly learned in 2019 that the state-run National Bank of Egypt had executed a request to withdraw $9,998,000 in $100 bills into two large bags. Dollar.
According to a Washington Post investigation, the withdrawal request on January 15, 2017 was executed on the same day, just five days before President Trump’s inauguration.
The findings of the troop withdrawal appear to support the notion that Sisi was trying to give Trump money.
Trump previously announced on October 28, 2016 that he would donate $10 million to his campaign. But in an effort to convince Trump to approve the deal, his then-campaign finance chairman framed it as a loan that could be repaid, The Washington Post reported.
In early 2019, Mueller’s team reportedly turned over the Egypt investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., which was then run by Trump appointee Jessie Liu.
Liu had said she was willing to subpoena a set of Trump’s bank records, but later expressed hesitation after consulting with Barr, according to the Washington Post. Liu has also privately expressed concern that the Justice Department faces more charges of interference in the presidential election as Trump has announced his 2020 re-election campaign.
In late 2019, Liu was nominated to serve in the Ministry of Finance. Her successor, Timothy Shea, reportedly reacted negatively to the Egyptian case.
He was replaced in May 2020 by Michael Sherwin, who decided to close the case due to a lack of evidence, The Washington Post reported.
“As we are sure you can see, these questions remain troubling regarding the credible allegations regarding the source of your $10 million in campaign contributions, the source of any repayments, and the source of all funding,” Raskin and Garcia wrote in Tuesday’s letter. of our country.
They also wrote that in light of “several proven patterns of corrupt behavior exhibited by the Egyptian government and you (of course, as a convicted felon, fraudster and corrupt politician),” the Washington Post’s The allegations made in the report are “particularly shocking”.
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