5 days before Donald #Trump became president in Jan 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian #intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10M from the organization’s account — all in #cash.

Inside the state-run National Bank of #Egypt, employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into 2 large bags, acc/to records from the bank.

#criminal #law #corruption #bribery
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4 men arrived & carried away the bags, which #US ofcls later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds & containing a sizable share of #Egypt’s reserve of US currency.

Federal investigators learned of the withdrawal…early in 2019. The discovery intensified a secret #criminal investigation that had begun 2 yrs earlier w/ #classified US #intelligence indicating that President Abdel Fatah El-#Sisi sought to give #Trump $10M to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.

#law

Since receiving the #intelligence about #Sisi, the #Justice Dept had been examining whether money moved from Cairo to #Trump, potentially violating federal #law that bans US candidates from taking foreign funds. Investigators had also sought to learn if money from Sisi might have factored into Trump’s decision in the final days of his run for the White House to inject his campaign with $10M of *his own money*.

#criminal #corruption #bribery
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…Within months of learning of the withdrawal, #prosecutors & #FBI agents were blocked by top #DOJ officials from obtaining bank records they believed might hold critical evidence, according to interviews w/people familiar w/the case as well as documents & contemporaneous notes of the investigation. The case ground to a halt by the fall of 2019 as #Trump’s then-AG, William P. #Barr, raised doubts about whether there was sufficient evidence to continue the probe of Trump.

#criminal #law

The behind-the-scenes drama played out during an especially tense time for the #DOJ, w/ #Trump accusing the agency of pursuing a politically biased “witch hunt” against him in its probe of #Russia #ElectionInterference, his appointees seeking to rein in investigators they saw as partisan, & some career supervisors growing wary of plunging the agency into yet another #legal battle w/the then-president.

#criminal #law #corruption #bribery
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#Barr directed #JessieLiu, the #Trump-appointed US attorney in DC, to personally examine the #classified intelligence to evaluate if further investigation was warranted. Barr later instructed #FBI Director #ChristopherWray to impose “adult supervision” on FBI agents Barr described as “hell-bent” on pursuing Trump’s records, acc/to people familiar w/the exchange. It is unclear what if any actions Wray, who was also appointed by Trump, took in response.

#criminal #law #corruption
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